


Making It Work

by etrix



Series: Making It Work [1]
Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Humor, M/M, Multi, Nibelheim, Sexual Fantasy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-09-24
Updated: 2008-11-06
Packaged: 2017-11-13 07:23:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 51,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/500946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/etrix/pseuds/etrix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zack knows the Nibelheim mission isn’t going well. Taking Cloud along to dig the General out of the basement is a gamble, but his only hope. There's no way he could've foreseen the result.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Wonderin' Where the Lions Are

**Author's Note:**

> If Zack was such a good friend to Sephiroth, why did he give up after just one attempt to get him out of the basement lab? I never could figure that out. Here’s how _I_ would have written it.
> 
> ETA: Nami is working on a Polish translation. http://archiveofourown.org/works/4305879/chapters/9759510

* * *

“Shit! It’s locked.”

There were two young men standing at the double-doors of the ShinRa Mansion. The morning was bright and crisp in the mountains, not that either one of them cared.

“I told you we shouldn’t be here,” the other said, “You said he told you he wanted to be left alone. Let’s just go back.”

“C’mon, Spikey, how’re you ever going to get into SOLDIER with that attitude?” The tall, dark haired one stood up and began patting down the numerous pockets in his uniform.

“You mean, the ‘I’ve-been-given-an-order-so-I-should-probably-obey-it’ attitude?” the second guy rebutted, “besides I didn’t _get_ into SOLDIER.” His voice was softer, he was much shorter, his hair was much, much blonder – but just as disordered. It was obvious they were friends but, where the dark haired one was filled with cheerful confidence, the young one was much more solemn.

“Uh, yeah,” Zack said sheepishly.

They weren’t quite a team yet, people didn’t talk about them like they had Zack and Angeal, but they were heading that way. Pretty soon, the brass would start sending them on the same missions just as a matter of course; balancing Zack’s impulsiveness with Cloud’s seriousness. Zack couldn’t wait. Not only was Cloud a competent and attentive soldier, he was a hell of a lot of fun to tease. Except, he hadn’t meant to tease him about his failed SOLDIER exam.

“You can try again in six months. And you’ll be six months older, six months stronger, six months taller...which will still make you short.”

“And that’s the problem, Zack. I’m too small.” Cloud knew, even as he said it, that it sounded whiney and childish, but he was more intimidated by his surroundings than he wanted to admit. Complaining about his size was better than running screaming from the mansion back to the village in absolute bat-shit terror.

Everyone in Nibelheim knew ShinRa Mansion was haunted. It had housed the notorious ‘secret lab’ in it’s basement, or at least somewhere below it. Strange and very dangerous things roamed it’s abandoned corridors. Cloud really didn’t want to be here, but Zack had asked, and begged, and somehow made it seem logical. Zack wasn’t intimidated by the scary mansion. This was the second time the big, cheerful, swordsman was going in so it did make some sense that he wouldn’t seem worried about entering a haunted house. Cloud decided to take that as a good sign, except that Zack never worried until something went very seriously wrong, so now Cloud was back to worrying again.

He hated this town.

“Ah ha!” Zack shouted as he pulled a slim case from one of his leg pockets, “I knew I’d brought them. One thing hanging out with the Turks has taught me,”

“How to fill the executive washroom with foam chips and blame it on Wutai terrorists?”

Zack laughed, “Oh man, that was a good one. Not that _I_ , personally had anything to do with it, or have any reason to suspect anyone _other_ than Wutai terrorists carried out the attack.” He groaned in happy remembrance. “The look on Palmer’s face.... Actually, what I learned was to never go anywhere without a set of lock-picks.” He bent down to the door lock. He sorted through the tools, picking out a couple slim, pokey things. He delicately inserted them into the lock, closing his eyes and sticking out his tongue as he felt his way around the lock. “It’s lucky that they never installed the electric code locks,”

“Why would they?” Cloud asked, “Nobody in town’s crazy enough to come near the place.”

“ _Pfft_ ,” Zack scoffed, “No horde of dorky faces scares a SOLDIER. You’ll find out, when you become one.”

“Zack,” Cloud protested. He didn’t want to hear another pep talk from the First Class.

“No, seriously, I’ve thought of a plan.”

“If it involves breaking into the central computer again, I don’t want to hear it.”

“Nah, nothing that easy,” Zack explained his plan and worked on the lock, taking only 100 times longer than even the most junior Turk. He’d get Kunsel to work with Cloud to build on his body strength, Zack would teach him materia, and Sephiroth – if they could ever dig him out of this weird ass basement, would help him with his sword work.

Cloud snorted, “Why would General Sephiroth help a grunt like me with sword work?”

“Because,” Zack replied, feeling frustrated when his tool’s tiny hook slipped _again_ , “we’re fucking rescuing him from this twice cursed, Gods forgotten _HOLE!_ ”

“We’re not rescuing him, Zack. We’re _disturbing_ him. There’s a difference.”

“Whatever. He’ll forgive us.”

“ _You_ , he’ll forgive. _Me_ , he’ll skewer with his huge fucking sword.”

“I’m sure he’d love to, you cutie, you,” Zack wiggled his brows suggestively, “but with your luck he’ll just cut you in half with Masamune instead.

Cloud swatted him on the head, “Perv,” he said without heat. It had taken a long time but Cloud had learned to be comfortable when friends, male and female, made jokes about him getting together with someone. For some reason, they all seem to like to picture him with Sephiroth. Especially the girls. Coming from tiny Nibelheim, he’d never known that male-on-male sex existed. Although it was probably what the town elders meant when they talked about ‘big city degeneracy’. Since going to Midgar, he’d learned about a lot of things he’d never known existed. Same-sex pairing was probably the nicest and least disturbing. At least it hadn’t been disturbing until he’d started having those dreams–

“ _Boo yah!_ I got it!” Zack yelled in triumph. “Take that Reno! You said I’d never be able to do it.” He pushed open the door to the mansion. It swung open silently, disappointing Cloud who’d expected the hair-raising squeals of un-oiled hinges. “So, the place is supposed to be haunted?” Zack asked as they stepped into the main foyer, a vast open space reaching up over two stories.

“Yeah,” Cloud searched the rafters, and the dark corners, “not with ghosts but just things, weird things. The elders talk about a Turk who disappeared about 30 years ago. Mr. Gruber at the Inn remembers seeing him before he vanished. His eyes were blood red and glowing.”

“Red eyes?” Zack scoffed, “Were his teeth all pointy too?”

“I’m just saying,” Cloud shifted, embarrassed, but being embarrassed didn’t stop him from raising his gun to the ready position as something moved in the shadows. He was, after all, a very competent trooper. Despite his size and his age, he was already a senior Corporal, next in line for promotion to Sergeant. “If something down here _did_ take out a Turk...” he didn’t finish the sentence.

“I get it,” Zack suddenly said, “This is the town’s ‘Scary Place’, isn’t it? The one kids tell spooky stories about and dare each other to spend the night at, am I right?” Cloud grunted an affirmative. “Did you ever spend the night, Spikey?”

“Not inside. Nobody stayed inside that I ever heard. I spent the night outside a couple times. It was a good place to hide from the town bullies.”

“Fuck, Cloud, you’d rather face down _ghosts_ than _people_?” Zack couldn’t believe it. One thing Zack was learning on this trip, aside from the fact that Shin-Ra was into some seriously sick shit, was that his quiet, young friend had as many secrets as his commander. His commander, General Sephiroth, who’d wigged out at the reactor and locked himself into a hidden laboratory to mutter about betrayal. _Fuck_. He pushed that worry away once again.

He’d thought he’d learn a lot more about the small, stubborn blond by seeing him in his hometown, watching him interact with childhood friends, maybe even meeting his mother. He’d thought he’d finally see Cloud _relax_ a little. He was always trying so hard to learn more and be better that he took every casual conversation as an assignment. Instead, Cloud had hidden his face behind his helmet, he’d stopped speaking at all, and he’d acted like, if anyone from village found out he was there, they’d tie him to a stake and have a bonfire. Even that pretty girl, with the tits, who’d asked about him, hadn’t been enough to peel the guy out from behind the helmet. What the hell had happened in this town, anyway?

They fought off a swarm of dorky faces, and Zack was right, he had no trouble with them. It hardly even broke his thought pattern.

He’d get to Cloud’s mystery eventually. Right now, he had to get to dig his General out of that library and figure out what set him off so it didn’t happen again. Cloud would have to wait because he, unlike Sephiroth, didn’t appear to be in any danger of imploding. In fact, he was calm and in control of his responses despite his nerves and his recent injury. Let’s not forget that that fruitcake Genesis had beat the crap out of the NCO on his way into the reactor.

“Huh,” Cloud grunted as they went up the stairs. “I thought it would be dirtier.”

“What?” It was an odd comment.

“There’s no dust on anything; not the rails, not the floor, not the light. Nothing. This place was supposed to have been abandoned fifteen, twenty years ago?” he explained, “so why does the place look like somebody just cleaned it?”

“I didn’t notice,” the SOLDIER looked at his surroundings and saw what had intrigued his companion. The stained glass windows were all sparkly; the plants in the corner were green and healthy. It wasn’t right.

“Of course not. Your mom cleaned up after your spoiled ass,” said the only child of a single parent who had been forced to spend sunny mornings dusting shelves and cleaning windows.

“Shrimp.” “Brat.” “Inbred mountain hick.” “Lazy jungle bum.”

The stupid insults got them through the next battle and into the room with the secret passage. The same unnatural tidiness extended to this room. No dust, no dirt, no musty smell: it was... disturbing. He searched for the mechanism to open the passage. Cloud stood facing the doorway, alert for any monsters coming through.

“Maybe I should let you go first,” Zack threatened lightly.

“Nuh-uh. Regulations clearly state; ‘when deployed concurrently with a SOLDIER operative, regular army provides back up and support only.’”

“Pussy.”

“Whiner.”

It helped to keep Zack’s fears at bay. The fear that he was too late and the commander he knew and admired wouldn’t exist any more. He’d known that Sephiroth was emotionally vulnerable, maybe not much, but it was still his weakest spot, but he’d never anticipated this kind of meltdown. Those things at the reactor had been pretty, fucking, disturbing though. Then there was the fear that he’d made a huge fucking mistake dragging his young, _normal_ friend down to face the greatest warrior in the world who could be homicidally insane.

Cloud also was relying on their silly competition. He hated this fucking town. He hated what it made him feel. Being back in Nibelheim, it was like he’d lost last three years and he was back to being ‘wimpy, cry-baby, Cloud’ target of bullies, instead of Corporal Strife who wore two campaign ribbons and a battle honour on his uniform. Teasing Zack, fighting with Zack, insulting Zack pushed back the old persona that had almost swallowed him up when he’d jumped out of the truck and seen Tifa Lockheart.

_Tifa Lockheart_ – oh my fucking _gods_!

She was still as pretty, still as spoiled, and still as unobtainable as ever. Not that he’d ever stood a chance and, after three years spent someplace else, he wasn’t sure he wanted a chance with her anymore – and that felt as strange as anything else that had happened since they’d arrived.

They descended the spiral staircase, Zack leading the way and Cloud watching their rear. “So,” Zack joked, “In little, backwoods Nibelheim there’s a ‘secret entrance’ to a ‘secret passage’ that leads to a ‘secret cave’ that holds a ‘secret lab’ – and everyone in the village knows about it?”

“That’s about it. There are no secrets in a small town, didn’t you know?”

“Yeah, I suppose. Gongaga’s the same.”

The tunnels at the bottom of the stairs brought the creepiness factor up to new heights. Zack joked, “Bet you it was an evil secret lab.”

Cloud, looking along the dark, damp corridor, that echoed with the voices of screechy things, flexed his fingers on his gun to keep them loose. “No bet,” he murmured, “I should’ve brought my helmet. I can’t see a meter down here.”

“Stay there for a sec,” Zack said and disappeared into the gloom. A few seconds later, Cloud heard the swoosh of the Buster, and a hacked off moan, followed by Zack’s triumphant yell.

‘Definitely monsters down here,’ he mused, ‘maybe even altered monsters... created in the lab, the evil lab’ He was tempted to hold his breath, in order to detect the slightest movement toward him, except that his training wouldn’t allow him to do something so stupid. Instead he kept his breathing steady, and his eyes moving and unfocused.

“Close your eyes, Spike!” he heard echoed down the tunnel. Obediently, he closed his eyes. A second later, dim lights flickered giving off just enough light for Cloud to see his way. “Wait for me there,” Zack ordered, and Cloud did that as well. Trusting the SOLDIER First Class to know if the danger was more than an ordinary soldier could handle. Zack came strolling back to the stairs, walking as casually as if he was on Loveless Avenue back in Midgar. “Figured not everybody who worked here would be enhanced so there had to be a light switch somewhere. Just had to find it.”

“Good thinking,” Cloud responded, “Who suggested it?”

Zack swatted at his head, “C’mon, Corporal Strife, you slacker, HUP-to!”

They moved out in the rhythm they’d developed upstairs in the mansion. Cloud was a good shot, but most of these monsters were barely phased by his standard-issue ammunition. Plus, the creatures down here were tougher and more likely to use status effects. Zack was constantly having to use Esuna on his companion who couldn’t survive them the same way he could. It was easy for the SOLDIER, but it meant it took him longer to kill each one.

“First thing we do, once we get out of here,” Zack said after a particularly nasty fight with a Yin-Yang, “is teach you how to use support materia.”

“Only authorized personnel are allowed to use materia,” Cloud pointed out as he handed over another Ether.

Zack chugged the noxious brew, grimacing at the taste. “Fuck that! When we get back to Midgar I’m going to _strongly_ suggest it to Sephiroth. If regular army’s going to act as support they should bloody well be able _to_ support.” They rested in silence for a moment, letting Zack rebuild his reserves.

“So where do you think he is? Sorry,” Cloud said, “stupid question. It’s just... this place is huge!”

“We’re nearly there, Spike,” Zack reassured the young corporal, “I just got turned around, sorry.” They were close, he knew it. For some reason that no one could explain, except maybe Hojo and no one was asking him, all the First Classes could sense when Sephiroth was close by. If close enough, they could even tell the general direction – _har, har_. Zack was relying on that as he suffered from his usual navigational dysfunction.

Cloud sighed, “It’s okay, Zack. I’m just spooked.”

“Yeah, I hear you, buddy. Those coffins didn’t help. I still think we should’ve opened them.”

“One mission at a time, Commander.”

Zack chuckled, “Yes, sir, Corporal Strife. I just wonder why they needed so many.”

“No idea,” Cloud held up another Ether in silent question. Zack shook his head. “I can’t remember any stories of secret graveyards, or people going missing.”

“Maybe it was just to scare unexpected visitors,” the SOLDIER suggested.

Cloud snorted, “It’s working.”

Zack grinned at the blond’s dry complaint, “Pussy,”

“Lummox.”

“Lummox? _Lummox!_ Where’d a hillbilly like you learn a word like that?” Zack stood up, handing the empty potion bottle back to Cloud.

“My mother likes books, always has. Can we just get on with this?” Zack bounced a bit, and declared himself ready. They moved around the cave, dispatching monsters, and working steadily and surely toward the source of the pull Zack could feel – toward Sephiroth.

They finally came to a reinforced door that Zack recognized from his earlier, fruitless, visit. “Boo-yah! We made it, Spike.” He pulled the handle but it didn’t move. “ _Shitpissfuck!_ He locked this one too.” Zack shouldered his weapon, “Spike, keep an eye out.” The SOLDIER pulled out his lock picks and set to work. Cloud checked his weapon, and assumed a ready stance, protecting his friend’s back. This lock was harder than the one in the mansion but Zack was determined. He had let Sephiroth kick him out once. This time he was staying, so he cursed and muttered and bled when his tools slipped, but he did open the _friggin’_ _door!_

They entered the first room, a circular office area. Equipment lined the rooms, their screens blank and their indicator lights dark. There were books scattered over desks, chairs, even the floor.

“Huh,” Zack murmured, “No dust here either.”

“Not liking this, Commander,” Cloud muttered.

“Preaching to the choir, Corporal.”

They could hear muttering in the distance. Cloud tensed, remembering all his childhood horror stories about this place. Then Zack called out, “Sephiroth? _General?_ ” and moved deeper into the room. The muttering stopped abruptly, but there was no other sound. No indication that he’d been heard. “He’s probably down this way,” Zack said.

“Okay,” Cloud responded, “You go first. I’ll follow 2 meters behind you.”

“Cute.”

Cloud just grinned. “Just creating the best survival plan as trained, Sir.” Zack could only shake his head in amused disgust. Yes, Sephiroth’s temper was legendary. Yes, secretaries had been known to run screaming from his office, but he’d never actually stabbed one with Masamune so he should be safe.

At least, he hoped he’d be safe.

“Seph?” He walked down the book-lined hall. It was in a worse state now than the last time he’d seen it only two days ago. Books were lying bent and open on the floor, obviously dropped and left. The Silver General was sitting at the table in the middle of the room. His famous long hair draped around him, almost hiding his narrow, sculpted face. Then he looked up.

“Commander Fair,” the smooth voice was cold and Zack caught his breath as he saw the glowing green ice in those cat-slit eyes. “I believe I gave you an order.”

As scared as he was by his General’s appearance, and he _was_ scared, and worried, he wasn’t going to let it show. That would just be stupid, and Zack Fair wasn’t stupid – usually, so he bounced on his toes and grinned, “Yeah, but you’re always encouraging your SOLDIERs to reinterpret their orders based on changing circumstances in the field. And, well, here I am!”

Zack approached the desk and casually looked at one of the books lying open. “Legends of the Ancients,” he read, his voice admirably level. “This is pretty old, huh.” It was a good act, but both he and Sephiroth were aware of the SOLDIER’s heightened adrenaline. If the genetically-modified swordsman decided to attack, Zack knew he was meat. There was no way, as close as he was, that he’d be able to dodge fast enough.


	2. Wonderin' Where the Lions Are

* * *

He looked at his commander, his friend. He looked him right in the cold, scary eyes that were Sephiroth’s but not, and saw the balance starting to shift toward death.

“Is it safe, or should I start running for the tunnels in fear for my life?” Cloud’s soft voice hung in the air. At the sound of it, Sephiroth’s ‘Death Angel’ aura slipped away. His eyes lost their icy sheen and became almost uncertain.

It was a reaction Zack had noticed a couple months back when discussing his young friend. He’d thought it intriguing at the time, sure that Seph had a crush on the young blond. It was also one of the reasons he’d decided to drag the still-recovering corporal out of bed, and through the big, scary mansion. He’d hoped that Cloud’s mere presence would be enough to knock Sephiroth off balance. It looked like he’d guessed right.

The Silver General was crushing big time.

“Shit,” Cloud probably hadn’t meant for that to be overhead, he’d said it so quietly, but enhanced hearing made it seem almost like a shout. “You know, Heideggar’s going to blame me if you two kill each other. I don’t want that kind of attention, thanks very much.”

General and SOLDIER exchanged a long look. There was a whole conversation that took place without one sound being made.

You brought him here?  
We’re worried.  
I can’t let him see me like this.  
We just want to help.  
I can’t appear weak.  
It doesn’t matter. We’re your friends

Sephiroth didn’t break eye contact with his SiC when he invited the young trooper into the room. “It’s alright, Corporal Strife. No one’s going to die. At the moment.” Zack just grinned at the pointed addendum. He’d won this battle and that was enough for now.

Cloud entered the room, hesitating only slightly when he confirmed that Sephiroth really hadn’t skewered his impulsive friend. He moved to the table and snapped a crisp salute. “General, sir!”

Sephiroth noticed scrapes and bruises on his face and arms. “What happened to you, Corporal?”

Cloud’s brain shut off, as it often did in the General’s presence. Zack explained about Genesis’ attack on the teen at the reactor. How Cloud had protected Ms. Lockheart and been pounded on for his trouble.

“Then why isn’t he recuperating at the Inn?”

“Because this is more important. That was some pretty strange shit we found at the reactor and then you started acting weird and buried yourself in here. We were worried.”

“We?” Sephiroth questioned, completely ignoring everything else Zack had said.

The SOLDIER looked over to his friend, who was politely ignoring their discussion by browsing through some of the books on the table. “Well,” Zack temporized, “he was worried once I explained everything to him.”

“There was no need.” Sephiroth stated, “I finally have the answers to who I am and why I was created.”

“Really,” Zack enthused, “Lucky bastard, most people never figure that stuff out.”

“I thought you were created to be the perfect soldier and warrior, but that Hojo wasn’t really happy with you because you became too independent,” Cloud interrupted without thinking, his mind on the book in his hand. When the attention snapped to him, he felt it. He lifted his head to see two pairs of eyes, one brilliant blue and friendly; the other cat green and distant. He flushed bright red, his eyes went impossibly wide, and they could hear him swallow. “Sorry, sir. It’s one of the things they say in barracks. Everyone one thinks that’s a good thing, though, sir. Nobody wants to serve under Hojo, not even indirectly.”

Sephiroth blinked, and then looked away in obvious dismissal, “I was designed with a much broader purpose in mind. It is here in Professor Gast’s notes and in Hojo’s journals. The Jenova Project wanted to produce people with the powers of the Ancients. Gast, leader of the Jenova Project and genius scientist, produced me.”

“These scientists left journals, containing information on their secret projects, just lying about an empty basement?” Zack asked, not believing it. “Excuse me if I’m sceptical. I never met this Professor Gast but Hojo is a crazy, sadistic fuck and secretive as Shiva. You’ve never trusted him before. Why now?”

“Because I never before understood his vision. The project was too vast for me to comprehend.”

Zack coughed, “Bullshit. You’re one of the smartest people I know. I can’t believe you’re buying into any scheme of that psycho fuck.”

Sephiroth ignored him, instead repeating the information he’d found in Hojo’s books. “Long ago, disaster struck this planet. Your ancestors escaped. They survived because they hid. The Planet was saved by sacrificing the Ancients. After that, your ancestors continued to increase. Now all that's left of them is Jenova. And me. It is all borne out by the information in these books,” he gestured at the scattered tomes.

Cloud’s soft snort startled the other two men out of their narrow focus on each other. Each trying to convince the other of what they were saying was correct, that what they believed was more important. “You have another comment, Corporal?”

The young soldier froze. He hadn’t meant to be heard, especially after the reaction to his last interruption. Plus, he certainly didn’t want to get involved in the argument that was brewing between the two First Classes, the two very large First Classes. Unfortunately, neither of his superiors were looking away, so he once again swallowed the lump in his throat and spoke up.

“It’s just, if he relied on these books for accurate information, he was probably misled, sir.” Cloud thought that was a nice, tactful way to phrase it.

General Sephiroth raised his eyebrow in silent disdain although he kept his voice cool and unemotional, “Those books were most enlightening.”

Cloud closed his eyes and Zack could almost hear his prayer to be swallowed by the floor. “What’s wrong with the books, Spike?”

“Well, um.” Deep breath. “They’re mostly fakes.”

“What?” Zack exclaimed, laughing, at the same time Sephiroth sneered, “Ridiculous.”

“I assure you, sir, these aren’t as old as they seem to be. My mother was a librarian at Kalm University before my father got transferred to Nibelheim.”

“And that qualifies you to judge the authenticity of these works?” Disbelief dripped from the General’s words.

“She, uh, used to tell stories, funny stories, about the ways people tried to defraud the library or the University or even some of the professors, with fake first editions or ‘rare’ finds. She talked of the mistakes the forgers made and how the staff caught them. She was quite proud of it. I remember father was too.” A small smile quirked his lips, he had so few happy memories of his dad. “She once saved the University ten thousand gil when she recognized a fake volume about the Northern Cave. They gave her a reward.” He laughed, “She bought books with it.” He looked up at his audience, suddenly remembering their presence, “Um, Sirs.”

Zack had walked over to Cloud’s area and was thumbing through the books. This was all good news as far as he was concerned – anything that undercut Hojo’s ‘Grand Design.’ Plus Zack had never heard the young blond babble like this before. It was cute. He’d thought his friend would start to stammer and stutter like he usually did when faced with one of the high level SOLDIERS, the General in particular, but he was doing great. Still, a little moral support was always welcome.

“So how do you know it’s a fake?” He asked, picking one up.

“It’s, um, different from book to book, like. This one,” he took it from Zack’s hand, “is okay, as far as I can tell. This one, however,” he picked up a thin, gilt-edged volume, “is definitely a fake. It’s obvious if you know any history of printing, or just plain history.”

Zack snorted, “Yeah, well, I don’t so, y’know, show your stuff, little guy.” He grinned.

Cloud glared at him, “Puppy,” he muttered in revenge, but he obligingly opened up the volume in his hands. “This book claims to be a reprint of a 300-year-old work by a Professor Kaslaka Pet-Pet... ” he stumbled.

“Petrovienovich, of Kalm University. It was very useful”

“Huh,” Zack interrupted, “I thought Kalm U was only a hundred years old or something.” He turned to his CO. “Didn’t they just have a party, Sephiroth? You got the invite.”

Sephiroth frowned. “125. I ignored the invitation. Why didn’t I see that?” His eyes went distant as he processed this information. “What else did you see, Corporal?”

Cloud blushed faintly but picked up another volume. He opened it to the first page. “This is the title page,” he stated. Even Zack could see it made sense as the title was printed large across the paper. “The back side of the title page is called the ‘verso’. It’s where publishers put printing information; where, when, who, stuff like that.”

“I see nothing wrong with it,” Zack said staring at it, puzzled, “It looks like all my other books”

“You have books?” Sephiroth teased dryly. ‘Yes!’ Zack could’ve jumped up and down like a little boy. Sephiroth was thinking again. He was coming back! “It contains all the standard information.” Sephiroth said to Cloud.

“Yes, but that’s what’s wrong with it, sir. This style of information, the content, the layout, all of it, didn’t become standard until Shin-Ra bought up most of the publishing houses. Before that, Vançome and Sons wouldn’t bother putting in that the book was printed in Nime because they only published in Nime.” He put that one down and picked up another.

Zack who’d walked over to stand next to his General, whispered, “Where’s Nime?”

“It’s what Rocket Town used to be called,” Sephiroth answered just as quietly.

“This was supposedly printed in Wutai two hundred years ago,” he picked up another leather bound book.

“So why wasn’t it printed in Wutaiinese?” Sephiroth finished for him.

“Yes, Sir,” Cloud smiled a little, “This one was a lot of work,” He picked up another, even larger book. Its pages were uneven and water damaged. Thick leather straps formed hasps for keeping the massive work closed. “hemp paper, hand bound and hand cut. It’s beautiful and old-fashioned, but the letters are too even to have been hand written. And there’s no guidelines that scribes would’ve used to mark their edges. It was printed using an old mechanical typeset machine.” He rubbed his hands over the tooled leather, “It’s possible this is an antique forgery.”

“You already said it was a fake, Corporal.”

Cloud blushed, “Sir! I meant that this forgery was made long ago, maybe a hundred fifty to even two hundred years ago. If that’s the case, it’s priceless in its own right. The University library would love to have it.”

Zack had long ago given up following the conversation. He leaned against the table, hands folded casually across his chest, and just grinned as the mountain boy showed his stuff. He barely refrained from doing a happy dance. ‘This was good,’ he thought as he watched Sephiroth ask questions of the trooper. The General was involved in the world around him again. This was better than good. He’d been so right to bring his cute, unexpectedly nerdy, little friend.

“How many of these books do you figure are fake?” He asked waving his arms at the book filled room and interrupting the engrossed duo.

“I don’t know but,” Cloud hesitated, stealing a quick glance at the magnetic General. He didn’t want to embarrass him because he’d so obviously read, and believed, many of the books on display, “There’s twelve volumes here on the table; five I know are fake and I’m not sure about another three of them.”

Zack whistled in shock. “That’s amazing,” he frowned, “And, when I think about it, pretty weird.”

“Hmm,” Sephiroth agreed. “Some of Hojo’s journals quote liberally from these works to support his theories and justify his research. How could he have not seen–” He trailed off, perplexed. It didn’t fit with the Hojo he’d interacted with all these years. Except that it did. Hojo was always willing to bend or ignore the facts in order to pursue a particular result.

“Yeah, Dr. Spooky may be a sadistic nutcase but he’s not stupid. I can’t believe he’d be taken in by stuff that can’t fool a small-town, mountain boy. No offense, Cloud”

“Too late, mildew brain,” said the mountain boy. “If I may ask, Sir, what are the professor’s theories?” From conversations with Zack, Cloud knew that Sephiroth had been raised in labs by Professor Hojo and most aspects of the General’s upbringing were either unusual or outright torture. Zack also thought that part of the current problem stemmed from Sephiroth’s dislike of being unique, without a family – alone.

And then there was the whole monster thing.

Zack had outlined what Genesis Rhapsodos, legendary First Class and warrior who was supposed to be dead, had hit the General with yesterday. Words chosen deliberately to cause the most anguish to his former friend and comrade. Cloud was reluctant to add to that pain in any way.

“He said that the body recovered from the Northern Cave was that of an Ancient Professor Gast called Jenova.”

“Jenova?” Zack blurted, “Isn’t that the name of your...”

“Mother. Yes.”

“Dude! I mean, General,” Zack corrected, “I know Hojo’s grasp on sex is only theoretical, but Jenova’s encased in Mako or something. I doubt she could carry anything to term.” Obviously, Zack didn’t share his friend’s concern about causing Sephiroth pain.

“He took live cells harvested from Jenova and implanted them in a foetus.”

“Okay that’s disgusting.” Both Zack and Cloud wrinkled their noses. “Who’d let Psycho Doc near their unborn child?”

“He says the mother was willing.”

Zack snorted, “He wouldn’t have stopped even if she wasn’t. You know that.” Cloud glared at his dark-haired friend. For someone who was trying to reassure his genetically-designed leader of his innate humanity, Zack was doing a lousy job. He seemed to realize it, and gave his commander an apologetic look. “Sorry, Seph. I just don’t like Hojo.”

“Understandable.” Sephiroth was quiet, looking down at the table, with a frown on his brow and Zack felt really, really small. He’d essentially suggested that his friend was the child of an odd sort of rape.

“What was Hojo’s vision?” Cloud’s question was softly spoken, but it was relevant and probably important.

“He says he wants to bring back the race known as the Ancients. They had the power to rule the planet, to make it do their bidding,” Sephiroth responded. He pulled one of the journals towards him and flipped through the pages. “He discovered Jenova was an Ancient but that she became so powerful the others of her kind, with the help of mortals like you, encased her in mako. They feared her, isolated her and, eventually, turned on her and imprisoned her. As her son, I should seek her vengeance!” He’d half-risen from his seat. His eyes were blazing mako green now. Not a good sign.

“But if the Ancients are all dead who are you to take your vengeance on?” Zack asked calmly. If you ignore the angry lion, it will eventually go away.

“And why do you need to take vengeance anyway?” Those glowing cat-slit eyes turned toward the young corporal. It’s just as well he was skimming through one of the journals or his mouth would have frozen shut, “If Hojo’s making babies from her cells then, in a kind of a way, she’s already won. It’s not like there are any other surviving Ancients.”

Zack snapped his fingers in realization, “Ancient, isn’t that another term for Cetra?”

“I’m surprised you know the term, Commander. It’s what the Ancients called themselves.”

“Huh, that explains the Turks,” he muttered cryptically.

Sephiroth sat back down, the glow dying from his eyes. Cloud’s soft voice and Zack’s oddball comments had served to bring him back from the edge. He waited a moment, then a moment more. “What Turks?” he asked his SiC.

“Mmh? Oh, yeah,” he exclaimed, reminded of his audience, “I know a Cetra. She has Turks watching her 24/7.”

This time it was Cloud who asked, “You know an Ancient?”

“Yeah, you’ve heard me talk about her. It’s Aerith.”

“Your Flower Girl?” Sephiroth specified, in case Zack knew two women with that name. It wasn’t likely, he conceded, but it was best to be certain when it came to Zack and women.

Zack smiled at the description. It was perfect for his Aerith. “That’s the one. I was out with her, selling flowers as it happens, and I saw Tseng hanging around. I cornered him and we got talking. Her mom was, like, half Cetra or something.”

“She grows flowers in that church under the plate, doesn’t she?” Cloud asked. Sure he’d met her, but he’d met so many people when he was with his outgoing friend that it was hard to keep track of them all.”

Zack nodded, “If Cetras, or Ancients, had some connection to the planet, that could explain how she gets them to bloom where there’s no sun.”

“Then Aerith can control the planet.” Sephiroth didn’t ask, but Zack chose to answer anyway wanting to divert the General’s mind from pursuing that path. Although the words ‘Aerith’ and ‘control’ had put his mind on a path that involved leather whips and handcuffs. Damn, she’d look good in that.

“Can she?” Cloud prompted recognizing the blank look as Zack daydreaming.

“Not control it. Definitely not. If she could, would she be living in a shack in under Sector 5?” He shook his head, “Nah! But she must have some connection to it though, ‘cuz, like I said, she makes flowers grow like you wouldn’t believe.” He paused to think, “Even if she could. I don’t think she would.”

Despite his casual pose thumbing through the books, Cloud had been very aware of the silver-haired warrior from the moment they entered the room. Something had set him off at the reactor. It was serious enough that Commander Zack Fair, legendary SOLDIER 1st Class had dragged a no-account army grunt along with him to confront The Silver General and there was no guarantee that whatever it was, was gone. Sephiroth could still decide to pull out six-feet of steel and slice them in half.

To be fair, there was no indication that Sephiroth was going to start lopping off body parts, but there were signs of stress, major stress. His face had the pinched look of someone fighting a headache, and his shoulders were drawn tight. He was currently massaging his skull as if the pain was buried deep. His fingers were working underneath his long hair, but his palms were covering his ears as if he wanted to block out a noise, but the lab was quiet, without even the hum of machinery to distract them.

Cloud fully intended to cower under the table at the first sign of weaponry. Zack was a First; let him handle his boss. Except, the General looked so….

“Have you had anything to drink recently? Sir.”

Sephiroth’s head came up, startled. It was such a, mundane thing. Yet he was as vulnerable to dehydration as the next person. “I am unsure.” That bothered him as well. He had a near perfect memory, thanks to Hojo’s genetic manipulation and his training, and yet much of the past two days were blurred. Events that had happened earlier also seemed skewed, as if someone had taken them and warped them.

Cloud frowned. Zack was off in his own little world again so it was obviously up to him to give the General some water; which meant he’d be putting himself within the seven-foot safety zone. Shit. He took another look at his idol. He seemed so vulnerable. With no other choice, he walked over, within sword’s reach, and placed his canteen in front of the General.

“Maybe Jenova wasn’t a Cetra,” Zack said out of the blue. He stood casually, hip-shot, hands clasped behind his head.

“What else could she have been?” Cloud asked.

A shrug, “Dunno. Something else. Something powerful enough to scare a whole race.” He scratched his head, trying to think of an explanation for the thing he’d seen at the top of the reactor. Considering how she was housed, someone at ShinRa valued her, and that was another worry.

Zack wasn’t stupid. He was, maybe, a little lazy when it came to brain work but it was just that he liked to have a clear-cut mission with easy to identify victory conditions. Send him in to kill monsters? He’d chop away until they were all dead or his arm fell off. Same with terrorists. He did a good job rescuing civilians from immediate danger, too. He liked doing that stuff.

What he didn’t like was trying to figure out the possible motives of long-dead people, or predicting the actions of psycho nutjobs, which was 90% of the ShinRa brass. This situation with Sephiroth was making his head hurt, and he wasn’t happy.

“She looked weird but that could’ve been the stuff she was hooked up to.”

“She’s here?” Cloud squeaked and immediately blushed at having made such a sound.

“Yeah, she’s up at the reactor behind a shielded door.”

Cloud snuck another look at the General. He’d finished the canteen and was back to rubbing his temples. Jenova, his supposed mother, was here in Nibelheim, stored at the reactor? No wonder he’d gone a little nutso. As he watched, Sephiroth stopped his useless massage and dropped his head tiredly into his braced palm. He looked almost… defeated. It looked wrong.

“Permission to speak freely, sir?” he snapped.

Sephiroth smiled, a little half quirk of his lips, at the idea that the little corporal was only asking permission now. “Yes, Strife.”

“You seem to be a little tense,” he cleared his throat, his mouth was suddenly dry. “I happen to give a pretty, decent massage. If you think that will help. Sir.”

“Massage? You never told me that!” Cloud ignored Zack’s indignant squawk to focus on the General’s quiet response.

“I don’t think a massage would help, Corporal, but thank you.” Cloud’s flinch was all but invisible. He was going to shut up, scared of being rejected again. He never opened himself more than once to anybody, but… but, there was something pulling at him. Something telling him to push it, that this was somehow important.

“Is it muscle strain, sir?”

“No, Corporal, it is not.” Sephiroth’s curt reply denied him the right to push. Zack however had picked up some undercurrent in the mountain boy’s voice. He was Zack Fair, he always pushed – besides, he wasn’t feeling too good either. Like there was a hum in his head or something.

“Maybe he’s hearing voices,” he suggested.

“What did you say?” Sephiroth’s voice was ice and, friend or not, Zack knew he was this close to becoming a kebab.


	3. Troubled Voices

* * *

“Well,” he extemporized frantically, “Aerith said she can sometimes hear the planet, at least she thinks it’s the planet, it’s kinda hard to tell, and, if she can hear it being part Cetra, then maybe you can too. If Jenova was an Ancient like Hojo claims, or was based on an Ancient, or just something Ancient related, then you would have _some_ Cetra in you and maybe the planet is trying to talk to you. Or something.” He trailed to a stop, almost; “It would give _me_ a headache.”

He then fixed his CO with his best ‘eager and anxious puppy’ look and waited for him to respond.

Sephiroth knew that look. He knew that Zack could continue that look for a very long time, and that curt answers and rude brush-offs wouldn’t discourage him. Its very familiarity helped clear up his oddly wavy memories and he remembered the proper reaction to this look of Zack’s, or at least, the only one that worked. He sighed, a small, put-upon sigh and then General Sephiroth, SOLDIER First Class, Operational Commander of Shin-Ra’s Armed Forces, Demon of Wutai, surrendered.

“Yes,” he confirmed, “I am hearing voices. Just one, a female, and have been almost since we arrived in Nibelheim.”

“Is she telling you how to grow flowers?” Zack asked facetiously. Nobody could do innocent stupidity like Zack Fair. “What?” he protested when two pairs of different, but equally amazing, eyes stared at him in horrified amusement, “Aerith is always going on about flowers and shrubs, and that kinda green shit.”

“No, Zachary. She’s not talking about growing things.”

“Is it, the voice, I mean,” Cloud hated the way the words were stumbling out but this was a weird situation. It was hard to wrap his head around it. “Is she the one telling you to destroy the planet; take vengeance and all that?” They already knew the answer but Sephiroth nodded anyway. “And she, it, the voice claims to be your mother?”

“Yes.”

Cloud shared a disbelieving look with his dark-haired friend. “That’s just not right, Sir. You have to live here too.”

Zack’s response was somewhat less tactful, “I’m sorry, boss, but your ‘mom’ is completely bat fuck. You know that, right?” The General continued to rub at his temples and Cloud, again driven by some instinct he couldn’t identify, moved behind him and began to massage his tight neck and shoulders. A piece of impertinence that he couldn’t believe he was perpetrating even as he was doing it.

His instinct was good. As soon as he drew near, Jenova’s voice dimmed. As soon as he touched skin it faded to almost nothing. For the first time in two days, Sephiroth could hear his own thoughts clearly. There was none of his mother’s bludgeoning invective and continual wailing. The relief was so great that nothing, not Odin himself appearing from on high, could’ve stopped the moan that escaped his mouth.

Zack raised his eyebrows, a lecherous leer appearing on his face, “Oh, I see how it is. Do you two want to be alone?”

Every part of Cloud’s head flushed, from ear tip to collarbone. _What was he thinking?_ Horrified, he lifted his hands, readying himself to move far, far away. Except Sephiroth was quicker. Without looking, he reached up, grabbed the youth’s small, but so strong and talented hands, and put them back on his neck.

“Ignore him. He didn’t mean to embarrass you, he just didn’t think before making the comment. A common problem of his.”

Zack did indeed look apologetic, “Sorry, Spike, but that was the most erotic sound I’ve heard all week. It gave me ideas.”

“But I thought you liked women. I mean, you’ve got Aerith.”

“Yeah, but I’d make an exception for Sephiroth. I mean, who wouldn’t?”

“Fair,” the General warned.

“Just wanted you to know the offer’s still on the table, sir. Or the bed. Or even this desk for that matter.” Oh, his little naïve friend was so much fun to watch, with his wide-eyed amazement at what Zack said, and the light blushes that made him look even more adorable.

“Commander Fair.” Zack grinned but held up his hands in surrender. “Maybe you should call Ms. Gainsborough. Perhaps she would indulge your persistent forays into prurient fantasy.” Sephiroth had his eyes closed. His voice was a lazy purr, which could mean he was relaxed or that he was about to strike. Considering how he was leaning into Cloud’s massage Zack was guessing the former.

“Hey! They’re perfectly good fantasies. Maybe not very original, but….”

“Zack. Would it help redirect your thoughts to know that Corporal Strife’s touch blocked out Jenova’s voice?”

Cloud stopped moving, “It does?” he squeaked. Again. You’d think he was fourteen and just hitting puberty. Although touching Sephiroth _had_ made a certain part of his anatomy act as if they were fourteen with all the hormonal overloads that came with puberty. He really, really, hoped that he didn’t have to move from behind the General.

“Hmm,” he agreed, “I hadn’t realized how overwhelming her voice was until you stopped it. If you would expand your massage to between my shoulder blades as well, I would appreciate it,” Cloud obeyed, his mind staggered and blank. _He_ was blocking _Jenova’s_ voice? It was almost better to think of that than the fact that touching the General had given him an erection.

“Do you feel more like yourself?” Zack asked.

“I hardly know what that is anymore, Commander. Those things at the reactor…” He trailed off.

“Had nothing to do with you as a person, Seph. It’s not what you’re body’s made of that makes you human, it’s what you do, and think and let yourself feel. Hojo’s more of a monster than you’ll ever be, because he _made_ those things, out of human beings, and he probably didn’t even flinch.”

“One moment, Strife,” the General murmured, “I can barely feel your hands. I believe my coat is too thick.”

He moved the blond’s hands to his neck then undid straps and harness as he sat. Unfortunately, he would have to disturb the Corporal’s work to take of the coat. He stood up, pulling away from Cloud and the voice was immediately back, louder and more insistent than ever. She knew something was stopping him from hearing her and she wasn’t happy.

He nearly hunched over at the renewed onslaught, but he managed to remove his coat and sit back down and then, blessed relief, as Strife resumed the massage and her voice was driven away.

A breath, to gather himself, to shield himself behind a calm façade. What had they been discussing? Oh, yes. “I killed hundreds in Wutai, maybe thousands.” He gathered his hair and pulled it over one shoulder so it wouldn’t interfere. Cloud’s brain stuttered, _ohmuhgod._ He’d never thought of himself as liking men _that_ way until he’d met the General.

“On a battlefield, in a declared war, is a little different than hidden away in some secret lab.” Zack didn’t say anything but he’d seen the little hesitation when Cloud’s hands had stopped touching him. He’d known it was bad, but this wasn’t just a mental breakdown. His friend was under attack by a creature that called herself his mother. It wasn’t a physical assault, Sephiroth could’ve countered that. No, this was an assault on his sanity and on the essence of him, his personality, his honour. He was so fucking glad he hadn’t stayed at the Inn. And that he’d brought Cloud with him. He wondered what it was about the little blond that blocked her out like that. Would anybody’s touch work, or was it only Cloud’s? He’d have to explore the possibilities later.

Cloud was having his own problems. Confronted with a vast expanse of alabaster skin over large, taut muscles, he froze. He was touching that smooth, oh so silky skin, but not moving. _Ohmuhgod._ He was touching _Sephiroth_. The Silver General who, to his mortified enjoyment, had been showing up in his sleeping fantasies since Zack had introduced them at the SOLDIERs’ MidWinter Night party. Maybe the General had shown up in some of his daydreams as well but those were tame compared to the other. He often woke up sticky from one of those. Cloud was sure he wasn’t gay but...but…. Maybe it was like Zack said and General Sephiroth was a special case.

“Please continue, Corporal,” The General instructed, so Cloud did. He wanted to keep it professional; he’d die if the General found out that he was just like those fanboys the SOLDIERs laughed at. He made his touch firm and efficient and, instead of thinking how silky, soft that beautiful skin was – _ohmuhgod_ , he concentrated on finding and working at all the tense, muscle knots that just had to be painful.

“And you wouldn’t have killed that many if the Wutai didn’t believe death was better than surrender. Even when they knew they’d lost they still kept throwing themselves at you.”

“I know what you believe, Commander,” Sephiroth began.

“Yeah, but you never _listen_ ,” he waved it away, “Never mind, it’s an old argument.”

Silence, a rare occurrence around the black-haired SOLDIER, descended on the small group. As was normal, when he had no other outlet for his energy, Zack did squats, but that didn’t occupy him long.

“Is there anything to eat down here?” he asked.

“I didn’t look,” the General responded.

Zack came out of his squat slowly, horrified astonishment on his face, “You didn’t _look?_ Didn’t you get hungry? Have you eaten anything?”

“Not particularly and I don’t remember.” Normally, Sephiroth would have been more careful in his response, but the massage he was receiving from the young corporal had relaxed him so much that his mind was drifting. It didn’t help that his mind was drifting to the feel of strong fingers, and the scent of a young man’s body. Making it worse was the olfactory evidence that young Strife was also aroused. “If you would move your hands a little to the right, Corporal… the other right.”

“Shit, General! You haven’t eaten for _two_ friggin’ _days?”_ Sephiroth frowned. Had it been that long? “No wonder you were cranky. You need some food.”

“I have some MREs in my pack,” Cloud offered.

Zack snorted, “I wanted food but I guess those’ll have to do.” He went over and dug through Cloud’s backpack. “I can’t believe you were so foolish, Seph. You of all people should know that you have to eat regularly or bad things happen.”

Cloud’s hands froze, “Bad things? What do you mean, ‘ _bad things’_?” Sephiroth, lying on folded arms on the desk, shifted unhappily and, _growled?_ reminding the trooper to continue with the massage.

“Should I answer that, Seph?” The General, satisfied again now that Cloud’s hands were moving, flapped a lazy hand at his SiC. Zack was surprised his fearsome boss wasn’t _purring_ , he looked so much like a contented cat. He smiled at the image of a kitty Seph curled up in Cloud’s lap. It would have long, silver fur, of course and Cloud would have the same wide, scared eyes, wondering if it really was safe to pet it.

“SOLDIER treatments affect the metabolism,” he explained, “If the injections ‘take’ then your system works harder than it did before. Faster nervous system, higher metabolism.”

“You’re always warm,” Cloud said, enlightened. On the mission to Modeoheim, Cloud had been near freezing a couple times, but Zack looked like he was strolling the beach at Costa del Sol. “Is that why SOLDIER uniforms are short sleeved?”

“That, and it looks cool,” Zack puffed out his chest and stuck a pose, “How can chicks resist this?”

“Idiot,” Sephiroth murmured without heat.

‘Yup,’ Zack thought, ‘definitely should be purring.’ He shook the food pack, initiating its self-heat module, which brought the goo up to nearly room temperature.

“So what’s the downside? ‘Cuz there’s always a downside,” Cloud asked.

“Oh, so young to be so jaded,” Zack sighed in mock despair. He put the MRE down in front of his CO, “Grub, Seph.” With an unhappy sigh, the Demon of Wutai sat up and looked at the unappetizing mass. Cloud’s hands naturally moved higher with the change in position, and he went to work on the General’s upper arms. Zack, watching his movements, thought it looked more like a caress than a massage. Zack knew Cloud had a crush on the General. He was just quieter about it than most people, but then again, Cloud was quieter about most things although Zack was working on that.

The black-haired SOLDIER looked at his two best friends, the way they were positioned so close to each other, the dreamy looks on their faces. Cloud was crushing on Sephiroth who, it looked like, was more than willing to be crushed. That was good considering he’d be willing to bet a body part that the Corporal had a stiffy.

“The downside is that in order to sustain that level of metabolic activity we have to eat almost constantly.” He was back in Cloud’s pack, pulling out another MRE, which he prepped and placed in front of the General.

“Ooh,” Cloud smirked, “I thought you were just, y’know, a pig.”

“Brat. We eat even more after a fight. When the mako kicks in the calories just disappear. We can lose two, even five kilos in a single battle. So you can see, it’s dangerous for one of us not to eat.”

“So, the General not having eaten for two days is a bad thing, even though he hasn’t fought anyone.”

“There was that showdown with Genesis.” Sephiroth’s back tensed and his face closed up. Zack saw it and knew why it happened. “I’m so sorry, Seph. I was sure he’d fallen and died. If I’d even _suspected_ anything else, I would have told you, I swear. I know he was a friend of yours.”

“It’s not your fault, Commander, Genesis always was clever.” His tone announced that the subject was closed. Further painful reminders would not be tolerated.

Rubbing a hand over his face, Zack couldn’t disagree with the sentiment. The asshole had had a _wing_ even before Modeoheim. How could he have forgotten _that_ little fact? He went back to the previous topic; it was neutral and safe.

“What it means, in the end, is that Seph’s probably used up his reserves. He’ll start losing muscle mass and strength, he’ll lose his temper quicker and be more forgetful. And the more of his reserves he uses up, the more he’ll need to draw on the mako, and the more reserves he’ll need. Vicious cycle.”

“That doesn’t sound good,” Cloud closely examined the back, exposed so enticingly beneath his hands, for any signs of deterioration.

“It isn’t. And this shit they give you normal troopers will barely meet what he needs _now_ let alone rebuild what he’s used up. We need to get him back to the Inn and stuff him full of real food. As much as the kitchen can provide while Spike here watches all big-eyed and amazed, because if you think _I_ eat a lot, wait until you see the General in feeding frenzy. Then we’ll crash for eight solid and come back here tomorrow to deal with all this,” he waved his hand around, “stuff. So, we should head out.”

“That sounds like an order, Commander,” Sephiroth snarled. Because of the snarl, he realized Zack was correct. His temper was becoming short if he was growling at his SiC. As predicted, the MREs of which he’d already eaten three, were entirely unsatisfactory. Unfortunately, they had awakened his appetite which was demanding more – much more.

“Yes, sir. It is. Operational regulations state; ‘if ever the health; physical, mental or other, of the Mission Commander is in question, the Second-in-Command and the Adjutant can order procedures, action or other, for the good of the mission'.”

“I don’t have an Adjutant,” Sephiroth giving in to impulse leaned his head back onto Cloud Strife’s chest. His scent was stronger here. It was relaxing and he could almost ignore his stomach’s clamour for more. He closed his eyes and settled deeper into the chair.

Zack nearly burst out laughing at the mix of emotions on his small friend’s face; horror, excitement, ecstasy and panic, were a few he recognized. “Sure you do. Adjutants are babysitters. They make themselves available as required and take care of the mission commander’s basic needs, Kinda like what Spikey’s doing right now. _Ergo_ , Cloud is your _de facto_ Adjutant. And he agrees with me.”

“So many large words, Zack, I’m impressed. Obviously Corporal Strife is a good influence on you.” Then he purred, “Do you agree with the Commander, Corporal Strife?”

Cloud’s hands paused, eliciting a demanding shrug from the General. “If the situation can get as dire as Zack says then, I have to agree with him, Sir. The books aren’t going anywhere, and well, you need to eat, Sir, before something happens we all regret.”

“Hmm. A bit lower please, Corporal.” Cloud moved his hands as directed. He was massaging nearly at Sephiroth’s elbows now, bent so low over the General he was practically breathing in his ear. He smelled _so good_. He couldn’t help it; he took a deep breath. Spicy musk with a hint of something... untamed, something quintessentially Sephiroth. _Fuck_ , he was getting hard again. He’d just got his last erection to go down with all that talk of muscle loss and degradation.

He snapped his attention back to his friend, embarrassed and apologetic. He shouldn't be thinking of the General naked, not when there was so much at stake. Zack’s plan was a good one but Sephiroth wasn’t moving. He wasn’t moving because Cloud was massaging him. He couldn’t stop giving the massage, he was blocking out that thing’s voice. If the General decided not to go with them, what could they do about it? It wasn’t like they could drag him, kicking and screaming, through the corridors. If they’d known what the silver-haired warrior was thinking, namely that there were actual beds at the Inn and that his first time with the young Corporal should be in a bed, they wouldn’t have worried so much. At least, Zack might not have worried so much.

Sephiroth smiled very slightly. “Agreed. We’ll return to the Inn.” Zack very nearly managed to hide his relief behind a cocky grin. “However, I am loath to lose contact with Cloud. In case Jenova’s voice becomes overwhelming.”

“D-do I need to be touching skin or can I just be standing close to you. What if I touch you through your jacket, Sir?” _Oh god!_ They were going to be leaving soon. _Go down, go down, go down,_ he ordered his body.

“Being close was... not efficient. Through the coat was acceptable. Skin-to-skin is best.” For so many things, Sephiroth thought. He’d have to be careful not to rest his full body weight on the smaller man, he strategized. Their height difference would normally be too great to kiss and achieve penetration simultaneously – in most positions. Good thing he was flexible.

“You could always hold hands,” Zack suggested slyly, too happy that his CO was back to consider the full effect of his words, “That would look so sweeeet! And it would definitely impress the villagers.”

“Your humour is, as always, juvenile, Fair. I will not walk through town holding hands. Even if it _is_ with Cloud.”

Cloud, was upset at Zack’s words, the First knew he didn’t like being here and hadn’t wanted to be a spectacle; but he was left breathless at Sephiroth’s. Did he mean that he _would_ hold Cloud’s hand otherwise? _Don’t think of it, Strife, keep your mind on the matter at hand_. Which was how to get the General through a town full of small-minded, gossiping busy-bodies without occasioning comment. Frigging impossible unless they had some other, juicier target.

Or a familiar, cherished, old one.

“What if _you’re_ touching _me_ , Sir? Would that have the same effect?”

Sephiroth opened his eyes, “A valid question. Come, stand in front of me.”

The young corporal did as he was told, keeping one hand in constant contact, trailing it over the silky skin as he circled the General. He shivered in uncontrollable enjoyment of the textures and the slide of it. At least his erection had gone down again, so he didn’t have to worry about that.

“Hold out your arm. When I give the word, lift your hand off my shoulder. I will wait a moment to see if the voice returns then I’ll reach out to touch your arm. Understood?”

“Yes, Sir,” Cloud responded.

“Commander, if something should go wrong you are to protect Corporal Strife.”

“Got it.”

“Very well; on my mark.” Sephiroth’s breathing was easy and steady, and his body was relaxed. “Two.” Inside he knew that he felt something other than easy and relaxed. It wasn’t fear – he was never afraid, but nervous and, perhaps, concerned. “One.” Those were close to what he felt. “Mark.”

Cloud raised his hand and Sephiroth felt the wall disappear.

     _Are you too afraid to accept what is yours by right? We can rule this planet. We can conquer it all. It is ours, just come to me, my son. Together we can claim your destiny._


	4. On Walks the Night

* * *

Then his hand was touching warm flesh, gripping it, and the voice faded back behind the wall, but the words, the _need_ , echoed in his mind.

“ _Shit_! That was fuckin’ scary, Seph.”

He had to, to… think, why couldn’t he _think?_ A large, strong hand gripped his bicep. A small, calloused one pressed against his chest. It took a moment for this world, this reality, to come into focus. He was here, in an underground lab not sailing the universe on the remains of a planet. He. Was. _Here_!

Zack was standing beside him, he had his hand on Sephiroth, although the Silver General barely noticed it compared to Strife’s soothing contact. Yet, he had been over there, near the entrance.

“Your eyes went fuckin’ incandescent and your hair started moving all on its own. I swear, if we’d left you alone for another second you’d have been levitating or some shit thing like that.”

“It was like standing too close to a thrown Bolt,” Cloud added. His voice calm, although he was looking at Sephiroth with huge, scared eyes.

“What happened?” He felt groggy. He didn’t like it.

“Um, yeah, well it was like you get in a fight but way more menacing.”

The General frowned. If he had been getting ready to go into battle, then why hadn’t Zack– “I told you to protect Cloud.”

“I did. I put your hand on his arm, which you’re going to snap if you keep holding it that hard, and that allowed you to come back to yourself because, face it, Seph, if you decided to go ka-blooey, there ain’t a place in this whole little shithole where he’d be safe.”

Sephiroth let Zack’s unending supply of words roll over him as he examined the young trooper. Cloud’s lips were compressed and his jaw was clenched, holding back any sounds of pain he might make. He would have a right to make all sorts of sounds, the silver-haired warrior realized, and he loosened his grip. “My apologies, Cloud.”

“It’s alright, Sir. I’ll live.”

He had the eyes of a much older man, Sephiroth decided. One who knew what pain was and accepted it as part of life. He had a soldier’s eyes, yet he was only seventeen, eighteen? He looked at where his hand had encircled the boy’s arm. Bruises were already starting to form. He softly rubbed his thumb over them, as if to sooth them away.

“Found something else out too,” Zack continued, “I grabbed you first and my touch did nothing.” The General made a non-committal sound while he activated his Cura. “I might as well be air. Spikey here, however, all I had to do was push him into you and it had an immediate effect. I could feel it dissipating.”

Sephiroth finally looked up at his SiC, “What dissipated?”

“I dunno. Something in the air, like...” he shrugged, “a presence?”

“I couldn’t move, Sir. I tried but…”

“It’s alright if you were afraid, Cloud,” Sephiroth soothed, but the blond interrupted him.

“I wasn’t afraid, Sir. I mean, I _was_ , but that wasn’t it. I tried to move but my body didn’t respond. It’s like what Zack’s saying. Sir. There was a presence and it didn’t want me to touch you. It was like I was being held.”

That information caused the General’s eyes to narrow. If the presence his companions had felt was Jenova, then she was aware and sentient, able to react to unfolding events and to find new angles of attack. She had controlled Strife. She had controlled _him_. That was unacceptable.

“You felt nothing, Zack?” he asked.

“Not like that. I’ve got a hell of a headache, and I feel kinda nauseous, but nothing stopped me from moving.”

“Perhaps she didn’t perceive you as a threat,” he murmured. Then another aspect of the Commander’s statement occurred to him. “You have a headache?”

Zack rubbed his temples, “Yeah. I didn’t notice it before, but I’m noticing now. Maybe I need food.”

“Touch Cloud,” the General ordered, “See if it eases.”

Zack shrugged and reached over to ruffle Cloud’s hair – the blond hated it when he did that but he couldn’t move away during such an important experiment. He made sure to reach right down to the scalp and, sure enough, the young man was scowling, but he didn’t shift. Zack grinned at the sheer _normalcy_ of the action then realized, “Hey, it’s better.”

“Well, shit,” Cloud whispered.

Sephiroth hummed, his curiosity roused, “Interesting. I wonder….” His eyes moved to the rows of books and journals but Zack cut him off.

“Eat first, read later.”

“It will be hard to navigate the tunnels, fight off creatures, _and_ maintain contact with Cloud,” the General pointed out.

“I’ll do the fighting,” Zack suggested, “Witch-mom’s not affecting me as badly as she is you.”

“Which mom?” puzzled, Sephiroth requested clarification.

“‘Witch’, rhymes with ‘bitch’. I’m using it so I don’t offend any feeling of maternal loyalty by saying ‘Creepy-Ass Psycho Bitch Mom’.”

“Hmmm,” He decided to ignore that. “I prefer being armed in the tunnels.” The statement didn’t offend the black-haired SOLDIER. As a warrior himself, he often took comfort in having his weapon ready. Even if he didn’t use it, it was nice to have it in hand.

“We can hold hands in the tunnels, Sir. I think that gives the best range of motion, plus I’m right-handed and you’re left so we can both be armed. Once we reach the surface, we can change grips. I’m sure no one will notice.” Sephiroth tried to envision any grip he could maintain on the corporal that wouldn’t occasion comment, and failed. He lifted an eyebrow at Cloud in question.

“If you hold me by the scruff of the neck, here,” he lifted his hand to demonstrate, “no one in the village will think anything of it. They’re used to seeing me get hauled around like that.”

“That’ll make it look like you’re in trouble,” Zack protested, “like we’re dragging you to jail or something.”

Cloud shrugged, “I don’t have my helmet anyway, so they’re going to see me. We might as well use it. They were always hauling me around by my neck. Like I said, no one will comment.”

“You mean, they will not comment on my behaviour,” Sephiroth clarified, “but will speculate on what you’ve done wrong this time?”

“Yeah. That’s what I mean.”

“You’re all right with that, Corporal?”

A deep steadying breath, “Yes, Sir.”

“Then thank you, Cloud.” His tone was soft, kind. He understood what Cloud was sacrificing in order to protect him from gossip. Zack watched his young friend blush lightly at the General’s words. He very rarely heard Seph talk like that to anyone. He became more convinced that, if he could just overcome their shynesses – if that was even a word but he knew what he meant, then his two best buds would be great for each other. They were both at their best when they had something or someone to protect. Here, they could protect each other and get some much needed noogie time. Both of them were long overdue for having some good hot sex, in Zack’s opinion.

“We should prepare to go. Cloud, you need your weapon. I need to put on my coat.” The manoeuvre to get dressed was a little awkward, though not when compared to holding hands in a dark tunnel and having Zack sing silly loves songs, or make comments on how ‘cute’ they looked as a couple. Embarrassed for the General, after all he was _the_ SOLDIER General and Cloud was just a lowly corporal the regular army.

“Zack, you’re being an ass,” Cloud said at one point when he thought his face couldn’t get any hotter. He passed over another Ether.

“Hey, I’m playing cupid here. Sacrificing any chance I might’ve had to fulfill a fantasy.”

Cloud snorted, “I hate to tell you this, Commander, fantasy or not, you never had a chance of getting into my pants,” he said, deliberately misunderstanding his older friend, “Although that Sahagin sure wants into yours.”

Zack moved out to deal with the creature, still yakking away, “Here I’ve done thousands of squats and for what? So that my best friend can reject my ass when it looks so good?” He took a moment to flick the blood off his blade. “First you reject the coffin exploration idea, and then my not so subtle plea for cheap sexual gratification. I never get to have any fun.” As he was grinning at the time, his companions ignored the complaint.

The black-haired first wasn’t the only one killing monsters. Having to hold Cloud’s hand didn’t actually hinder the General much. He would twirl the young soldier in circles, sometimes pulling him in close to his body, sometimes whipping him out and around. Cloud soon learned what kind of grip indicated he should drop to his knee. Looked at in one way, he could understand why Zack sang at them. It probably did seem like a type of a dance – a rather bloody and deadly dance, but definitely formal ballroom.

That Zack couldn’t resist teasing them about it was okay too. The young corporal had realized on the way down that Zack’s mouth ran from the surface of his brain, draining extraneous thoughts so the deeper, deadlier part could calculate angles, vectors and trajectories unhindered. The swordsman would shut up once they were safe, or shut up as much as he was capable of. What surprised Cloud was how well the General took the unending flow of suggestions, innuendo, gossip and speculation that spewed unchecked as his SiC slashed through the monsters.

“Zack, may I remind you that open speculation about the shape or texture of my posterior erodes discipline and invites disrespect from others who might hear you.”

“Nah! It builds up your mystique,” Zack argued, “’cause if I don’t know what it looks like up close, then obviously nobody else does.” His mind skipped, “Speaking of asses, Oh Fearless Leader, Sir, can you _please_ talk to Heideggar about the stupid-ass decision to not teach supporting military personnel how to use basic materia? Cloud here can’t cast Cure, or Esuna or even a wimpy, fucking Barrier. That’s just asking the troopers to be meat shields.”

“I’m carrying all the potions, Zack,” the corporal protested.

“Much good that’ll do if I can’t stop to drink some.”

Sephiroth had to admit, the Commander had a point. Deciding it was unacceptable that Cloud was so vulnerable, they stopped and equipped Cloud with a bracer that held the General’s Mastered Cura and a Barrier of Zack’s. In between slashing and dodging, they instructed him on gathering and channelling the materia’s power. They didn’t actually expect him to be able to _do_ anything with it but, to the surprise of them all, he managed to cast a weak Cure while Zack Esuna’d a poison spell. He grinned as broadly as Zack ever had. Zack clapped him on the shoulder and made plans. Sephiroth just smiled smugly, and proudly, as if the blond corporal were _his_ creation.

It was scary. It was filthy. It was weird and it was exhilarating. It was also very short – shorter than he remembered from the trip down. It seemed like they were at the mansion’s over-large and over-fancy main entrance in no time. As odd as it seemed, Cloud was sorry the trip was over. Once they went out the door, they wouldn’t be a team, they’d be two SOLDIERs and Cloud Strife, town trouble-maker

Before Zack opened the door, Cloud placed his hand on the General’s chest so that he could properly clean Masamune before sheathing it. Then Sephiroth took his grip on the young man’s neck. The corporal slung his weapon into a less battle ready position, there were few monsters between the mansion and the village and Zack could take care of any they encountered, and he assumed an air of guilty defiance.

Zack watched the preparations and remembered a question he wanted to ask. “So, Spike, how did a book nerd like you, child of a Kalm University Librarian, end up in dinky backwoodsville?” Sephiroth, who had been ready to go out the door, decided that he would like to hear the answer as well and settled back on his heels.

“Oh, well. My dad was a computer engineer for Shin-Ra. When they were installing the remote monitoring systems, he was assigned here to oversee the project. They bought him a cottage, moved him and my mom here. It was supposed to be temporary but it took longer than planned.”

“It always does,” the Silver General murmured, very familiar with Shin-Ra’s inefficient and capricious project management style.

“I know he had troubles accessing some areas of the reactor.” He opened the door and the group was forced to move out of the mansion; Zack in front, as he had been in the caves.

“Was it Hojo?” Zack asked, prompting the blond to continue.

“I don't know. This is just what I overheard my parents talking about or what my mom let slip. I was seven when my dad got sick, nearly nine when he died. They figured it was working at the reactor, mako poisoning, but Shin-Ra denied it. They wouldn’t pay for treatment then, after he died, the company wouldn’t move Mom back to Kalm because she wasn’t an employee. They’d used all their savings to try to heal Dad so we were stuck here.”

“And you didn’t fit.” Sephiroth stated.

Cloud snorted, “Not even slightly. My mom owns nearly 200 books. Most of them classic works of literature that have been read for hundreds of years. The town elders called them subversively modern and kept wanting to burn them. She _argues_ with them about the need for education, the benefits of reading, and just learning new things all the time “instead of letting brains atrophy to the size of a marlboro’s” – that’s a quote. It makes her unpopular," he concluded in dry understatement.

“And so they picked on you because you were her son? What dick heads!” Zack said contemptuously. Zack swung his buster sword a couple times, unable to contain his emotions.

“Well,” Cloud blushed and shrugged, careful not to dislodge the General’s hand, “I may have done my share of arguing too.”

“Stupid fucking town doesn’t deserve you anyway. Right, Seph?” He reached over and ran his hand down his friend’s arm, offering comfort and receiving some relief from Jenova’s irritating buzz.

“I am glad Cloud decided to leave it and join the military. Midgar is a much better place for him.”

“Thank you, Sir.” The young man ducked his head in shy pleasure. “I think it was a good idea too.”

“Yeah, now let’s go eat them out of next year’s food supply. Is the grip working?”

“It is adequate for fooling the villagers – since they seem to be blind to the truth of things.”

Zack hoped Cloud was ready for this. Sephiroth would have to keep that humiliating grip on his neck all the way through the village, right across the town square. Unlike this morning heading to the mansion, when it was still dark and nobody’d been out of bed, it was afternoon and nowhere near dark, which meant that people would be out and about. If it was anything like Gongaga, people would stare and point, and whisssssper.

The young corporal did know what he’d volunteered for. At least with the two Firsts as an escort the villagers probably wouldn’t yell or spit on him. Then there’d been that one time someone had thrown a rotten egg. Cloud had ducked and it had hit Constable Schtern. He’d docked his mother the cost of cleaning his uniform.

He really hated this town. All they would see was that Cloud was to be punished again. That he had done something wrong which was to be expected of those weird Strifes with their ‘nasty furrin ways’.

They wouldn’t notice how the General’s fingers rubbed lightly over the skin of his nape. ‘And if he doesn’t stop that I’m going to get another erection, then Zack _really_ will have something tease me about,’ he whined to himself without actually wanting the General to stop his caress.

However, Cloud had forgotten one important thing, or rather one person, “There you all are!” Tifa Lockheart. “I was beginning to wonder if I should get Dad to notify Shin-Ra or something. You’ve been gone for _hours_.” Zack could tell she was setting up for a good long rant but then she saw who the General was holding. “Cloud? Cloud _Strife?_ ”

The blond raised his hand in a weak wave, “Hey, Tifa.”

“That was _you_? All this time? And you never said _anything?_ ”

“I can explain…”

“He was under orders, Tifa,” Zack lied.

“Under orders? Why?” Yeah, Cloud thought, why would a trooper, a local boy, be ordered to keep his head covered? He waited to hear the answer, eyebrows raised in sceptical inquiry.

”Public relations.”

In front of him, Tifa stood with her mouth open. Behind him, Sephiroth choked out one of those ‘I can’t afford to laugh right now’ coughs. Cloud just shut his eye and shrugged internally. Might as well tell the truth – who knows what story Zack would come up with next?

“That’s not true, Tifa. Thanks, anyway Commander.” The blond took a deep breath, “I didn’t take my helmet off because I didn’t want you to know, any of you,” he swept his hand out to indicate the whole village.”

“But why?” she asked.

”Because… because I said I wouldn’t be back until I was SOLDIER and I’m not.” It was the simplest explanation and should be the easiest for her to accept.

“Yet,” Sephiroth added firmly, his smooth baritone purring through the gathering dark, “and if you keep acting as impulsively as you did in the tunnels, you won’t be alive to take the test.”

“Tunnels? What tunnels?”

“To the secret lab, of course,” Zack bounced and placed an hand on Cloud’s bare arm. “Cloud here told us the town’s stories about the spooky place and we had to check it out.”

”You mean those stories are true?” If anything, her eyes got bigger and her voice squeakier.

“Yeah, hidden passages, secret entrances, scary monsters, the lot,” he grinned widely.

Tifa looked at him suspiciously, “I don’t know if I should believe you. You lie too easily.”

Zack slapped a dramatic hand over his heart, “Oh Tifa,” he declaimed, “you wound me. I wouldn’t do that to you, would I?” He gave her sad, puppy eyes and that did it.

Tifa rolled her eyes and snorted, “Secret labs, yeah right.” Zack just smiled. Sometimes the truth _was_ the best cover story.

“We need to proceed. I doubt the path gets safer at night,” Sephiroth interrupted, “Ms. Lockheart, it would be best if you would join us.” It wasn’t a request even though the tone was polite. Cloud wished Sephiroth weren’t such a gentleman. There wasn’t a huge distance between the mansion and the village and he wouldn’t have minded sending Tifa away, especially when she started with the questions – lots of questions.

Some were easy to answer:

“How did you get to Midgar?” “Train mostly.” (Did you think I walked?)

“Were you scared?” “A little.” (Of course I was, I was only fourteen.)

“Is it as big as they say?” “Unbelievably big.” (Ugly and wondrous all mixed together)

Some were awkward or embarrassing:

“Why didn’t you write?” (What would he have said?)

“Did you think of me?” (Not more than I thought of anyone else in Nibelheim, certainly less than I thought of my mother.)

Then there was the big one, “Why _aren’t_ you a SOLDIER yet?” This one, however, the General rescued him from.

“SOLDIER recruits must be seventeen. Some argue that even that is too young, as they don’t have the physical or emotional stability required. Commander Fair here is a case in point,” he continued over Zack’s indignant yelp, “However, tests have found that any older and they don’t adapt as well to the treatments. Cloud has only recently reached that age. His application will be processed during the next recruitment cycle.”

“Will he get in?”

Cloud’s face didn’t change but he cringed inside, fearing the answer his idol would give. What he’d said this morning to Zack was true, he _was_ little compared to the two meter average height of the SOLDIER candidates – and most SOLDIERS for that matter. The General was well over a head taller then he was, and Zack was taller still. He’d jumped up in the last couple years but neither of his parents had been above average. Hell! He was short, but he was still taller than his mom.

“If his reaction to the mako test is within acceptable limits, I see no reason why he wouldn’t be accepted.” Was it the truth or a polite lie given to protect Cloud? The young corporal couldn’t decide. He didn’t know the General well enough. Why would Sephiroth lie, especially for some lowly, small town grunt? He knew that, though he hadn’t _hindered_ the two SOLDIERs in the tunnels, he hadn’t _helped_ much either.

While he was busy dodging Tifa’s questions, he’d had to watch his best friend cozying up to the girl he’d once dreamed of having as his girlfriend. Zack walked beside Tifa, talked to her constantly when she wasn’t asking Cloud another question, and he touched her almost all the time. He even got her to _squeeze his biceps,_ for Odin’s sake! Sure, they’d never _been_ boyfriend/girlfriend, and after two days in her company, he no longer wanted to be, but _still_. He didn’t want to watch his best friend flirting so hard with his almost girlfriend! Except that he had no right to feel that way and wasn’t sure why he _would_ feel that way, and the whole thing was making his head spin so much he felt ill.

Then there was the General’s behaviour. Sephiroth had kept up with his gentle caress. His long fingers spread up into his hair to give him a discreet scalp massage. He’d move them so they covered the pulse point in his neck and he’d massage that. His latest move was to delve down under the collar of his uniform and caress the top of his spine. _That_ made him shiver, big time, and it certainly didn’t make him feel ill. It made him feel a whole bunch of other things, which were entirely inappropriate for the middle of the village’s town square.

“So what did he do now? Is he in trouble again? You haven’t let go of him since you came out of the mansion.” Tifa asked. Cloud wished – a selfish, little wish, that the girl would just shut the fuck up and _go home!_

Sephiroth smiled. It was actually just a quirk of the lips but it was the best he could do. Between awareness of Jenova’s constant howling waiting just beyond Cloud’s presence, and their guide’s annoyingly persistent questioning, he was beginning to feel the desire to smite something. This bratty young girl didn’t care if Cloud was in trouble; she just wanted to know the latest gossip. Since he couldn’t smite her, he would have to settle for pricking her little balloon, “He’s being a hero.”

It was wonderful, because it was the absolute truth.

Tifa, of course, thought it was a joke, a sarcasm, or something. She was sure of it when she saw Zack smiling. She didn’t realize that Zack was smiling at Sephiroth’s expert manipulation of the nosy little mountain girl. He also knew that the General had told the complete truth. If it hadn’t been for the young corporal, General Sephiroth, warrior extraordinaire, would probably be laying waste to Nibelheim right about now.

They escorted the young guide right to the door of her father’s house. The Mayor opened the door himself when they knocked. Zack chatted with him for a bit, shaking hands, deflecting his questions and reassuring his worries; running interference between his irascible General and the public like he always did. Finally, they got away from the Mayor, who took obsequiousness to obscene heights, and entered the Inn.

There were a few people in the common room, enjoying a meal they hadn’t cooked themselves. Most looked up to see who’d entered. They saw the SOLDIERs, and they saw Cloud Strife. Some looked indifferent, some seemed happy at having gossip fodder, but a few looked snidely condemning. This made Sephiroth frown. With a quick assessing look, he decided on a strategy.

“Commander Fair, if you would arrange for food to be sent to the room, I will take our little warrior upstairs and instruct him, _once again,_ on the dangers of being too brave on the battlefield.”

“Yes, sir!” Zack grinned. Like Sephiroth, he hadn’t missed the curled lips and the disgust some of the villagers had displayed when they recognized the Strife boy. That the cold-eyed General had decided to protect him meant that he had, at the bare minimum, ‘adopted’ the blond as a kind of SOLDIER cadet.

No one _– No one,_ outside SOLDIER, and very few within Shin-Ra, were allowed to criticize a SOLDIER directly. They could take their complaint to Sephiroth and the General would blister skin if he thought the complaint was legitimate. Prejudiced and ignorant villagers would obviously not be allowed to comment, even silently. Which meant, Zack concluded, that no matter what he might say, Sephiroth felt Cloud was _his_. As a cadet or maybe something a little more... personal.

‘This was great!’ he cheered internally. He’d plotted for ways to get his two best friends together since he’d spotted Cloud’s ‘problem’ back in lab, and then there was Sephiroth caressing the boy’s neck like it was a replacement for something else long, hard and cylindrical. So he knew Cloud was interested and, given the long-haired SOLDIER’s actions, it was a good bet that he was interested right back.


	5. Feasts of a Thousand Beasts

* * *

He arranged for the huge meal they’d need, food in quantities large enough to feed all the people already at the tables and then some. He added tea to the order, because this place didn’t have much in the way of drink choices. Besides, he didn’t think alcohol was a good idea when Seph’s control was shaky to begin with. Then he turned his back to the counter and looked fake-casually at the patrons who were busy watching him and gossiping. If they’d known how truly sensitive a SOLDIER’s hearing was, they’d’ve shut up.

Sephiroth would have glared and pulled out Masamume; Zack smiled, and waved and said “Hiya, how’s it going?” Then he moved over to a table and sat down, chatting and nibbling as if they were old, old friends. ‘Nothing like disconcerting the small-minded,’ he always said

Damn, he hated small towns sometimes. Everybody knew everyone else’s business and felt they had a right to have a say in it. There was no room for the different or unique. Gongaga had been the same. Everyone, including his parents who really ought to have known better, tried to make him fit into the life they had. They couldn’t conceive of encouraging their son to dream of completely different life.

He was so fucking glad to be out of there. He’d have been married with a couple kids, or more, and skinning Touch-Me toads for bare handfuls of gil like his old man. Facing down half crazy Sephiroth was only slightly scarier than that.

Speaking of scary….

Zack pulled out his PHS, punching in Aerith’s number by heart.

“Hello, Zack,” her voice was always light and cheerful, like her flowers.

“Hey, beautiful. Sorry I cut you off this morning.”

“That’s okay. You’re a SOLDIER and you’re on a mission. I should expect it, right? And you called back so that’s good.”

“Of course I called back. Had to hear your voice, and let you know everything is going well.”

“Is it?” she asked, “Going well, I mean.” She knew, somehow she always knew when things were off-kilter with him. He should see if someone had some native flower seedlings he could take back for her garden. Except then he’d have to actually thank one of these small-minded hillbillies for something. _Blech_.

“It’s not as simple as they said it would be, that’s for sure,” he paused, thinking of crazy Seph on a rampage, “but it’s not as bad as it could be. Of course, if you were here it would be better.” He settled in for a good long flirt.

”Commander Fair,” interrupted the proprietor.

“Shit. Oh sorry,” he said as she giggled. He had a foul mouth and knew it, but he always felt rather bad swearing in front of her, “Aerith, the food’s here. I gotta go, doll. No way the staff can carry it all on their own.”

“Alright, Zack,” Aerith was very familiar with a SOLDIERs appetite.

“I’ll talk to you soon.”

“I’ll be here. Take care of yourself.” It was amazing how such a short conversation made him feel so good.

He grabbed the largest tray while the innkeeper, Mr Gruber, and his son took the others. He led the way upstairs, chatting casually with the man about the weather, the current influx of monsters, and whatever else dribbled out of his mind. The point wasn’t actually to talk to the innkeeper, it was to talk loud enough so that Seph would hear them coming up the stairs and break it off anything inappropriate he might be doing with Cloud while they waited for the food.

He opened the door, holding the heavy tray one-handed because why have enhanced strength if you never used it? Cloud and the General were sitting innocuously enough at the table. They weren’t kissing or doing anything else either, more’s the pity. They weren’t sitting beside each other or even holding hands.

Cloud was actually slouched down low on the chair, arms folded defensively across his chest, legs stretched out and crossed at the ankle. He was the perfect image of a rebellious teen being scolded by his elders. Sephiroth sat beside him facing the door and his eyes caught the attention of the two locals entering the room. Zack didn’t need to look. He’d already noticed the bare feet neatly hidden behind the equipment bags. The two were playing footsie under the table.

“General, everything okay up here?” Although Zack often behaved casual and teasing to Sephiroth in private – or in front of most SOLDIERs who could be counted on to keep the General’s secrets; he very rarely did so in _public_ public. Sephiroth put up with enough gawking and gossiping, he didn’t need anything more showing up in the rags.

“It is as you see, Commander,” the General said in his controlled baritone.

“Good, good. We’ve got stew and sandwiches, biscuits, a roast, desserts, some fruit, vegetables, and some bread. And tea, some local herbal concoction that’s supposed to be good for your nerves.”

A sculpted brow rose, “My nerves are fine.”

“Yes, well I’m sure Cloud’s nerves are fucking wrecked. I’ve been on the receiving end of one of your little ‘talks’. Do you think he listened?” He directed the innkeeper to set the tray on the table.

“He will, as usual, do what he believes is right, just as you always have.” The two locals were gawking, eyes and ears wide at this glimpse into the Secret Lives of SOLDIERs – Zack could practically see the capitalization. If they hadn’t already owned the inn, they’d be drinking free on this tale for months.

Once the food was laid out over every available surface, he swept the two locals out of the room. The SOLDIER First Class stood listening at the door until their heavy tread echoed in the stairwell. He nodded the all clear. “So how is it really?” He moved like a guided missile to the mouth-watering food. The General had already filled the bowls with stew and set them out, so he grabbed a sandwich and bit in. Heaven!

“As I said, I am doing well. The voice seems quite distant.” Zack nodded and bit down again. His first sandwich nearly gone in two bites, and he was slow in comparison to the General who was already on his third. Sephiroth’s arm was practically blurring he was moving food to his mouth so fast. “Cloud cast Barrier and that helped somewhat. Perhaps my control is better as well.”

At that Zack shook his head, quickly swallowing, “I think it’s distance from the reactor, or the lab, whichever. My headache’s nearly gone. Speaking of which…” He leaned down, removed his boots and socks, and let his feet join the toe love going on under the table. The last vestiges of pain disappeared as if they’d never been. “That’s better,” he said in relief. He dug into the soup, “By the way, touching Tifa had the same effect as touching Cloud.”

“Tifa? Is that why you….” Cloud couldn’t finish the sentence. “You were experimenting?”

”Yeah. It was more noticeable at the mansion, but Jenova’s wailing was, y’know, louder there. She got weaker the closer we got to town but there was still a difference each time we touched. What? You didn’t think I was moving in on Tifa, did you, Spike? Wasn’t she your girl or something?” Zack said it so that Cloud would put the little princess out of his mind. It worked.

The blond blushed and stuttered, and repudiated his former feelings. “Tifa’s not, I mean… We never, there was never…” He took a breath to compose himself, carefully not looking at the silver-haired warrior. “The only reason I wanted to impress her was because I never could before, I guess. She was the prettiest, most popular girl in town. If she liked you then you were in, and everybody would, you know, talk to you. But it was never _more_ than that.”

”You wanted what she symbolized: acceptance, belonging, and friendship,” Sephiroth understood, better than his SiC who’d always been popular and always had lots of friends.

”Exactly!” Cloud looked up quickly, disconcerted and embarrassed to find both of the older men watching him. He looked back down into his bowl of stew. His second. His companions were on their second _pot_ of stew! Zack had been right when he said the two of them would eat the Inn’s entire food supply.

“I never said thank you for what you did – with Tifa and the people downstairs. You were protecting my reputation, not that I have much of one here, but still. Thank you.”

Zack grinned and ruffled blond hair, just to see the boy flinch, “You’re welcome.”

”SOLDIERs look out for each other,” was the General’s conversation stopping comment. Zack punched Cloud’s arm in triumph; Sephiroth _had_ claimed the blond. The comment and Zack’s reaction made Cloud blush; after all, he _wasn’t_ a SOLDIER. Still, it gave him a sense of comradery with them, and a deep ball of happiness and possibilities inside.

“Which is why I made an idiot of myself for you. Getting Tifa to squeeze my biceps, puh-leeze,” he rolled his eyes. “Distracted her for a bit though. Want to know what else I found out?” He peeked at them playfully as he put a rolled slice of roast beef in his mouth, whole.

Cloud frowned, too familiar with Zack’s moods to be drawn. Sephiroth merely asked, “What else did you discover,” while he served himself the last of the stew.

Zack moved some of the empty serving dishes to the side of the room and brought back full ones. “Tifa’s dad blocked her out too. So did Mr. Gruber, but his wife barely dimmed it. An old lady, and her son I think, who came into the inn while I was waiting. I helped her sit and shook his hand. They both had the same effect. Some people at one of the tables I managed to scarf some dessert off of.”

“Mrs. Gruber is from Zonderheim, over east a ways,” Cloud commented.

“So it’s native Nibelheimmers?” Sephiroth asked then changed it thinking of their not-quite-native companion, “or at least ones who were born here.”

“I haven’t checked them _all_ ,” Zack teased, “but yeah; looks that way.”

“That may explain why Mot– _Jenova_ was directing me to burn down Nibelheim and to kill everyone in it before doing anything else,” Sephiroth said calmly, picking out another sandwich. Both Cloud and Zack froze, staring at the General, Demon of Wutai, the greatest, most deadly warrior on the planet, in horror.

“Shit,” he murmured in dismayed realization, “she’s not stupid, is she.”

“Hmm,” Sephiroth agreed, “Although it was unlikely I would have let any of the villagers close enough for them to have done any good. Perhaps she was thinking of the future.”

“She’s not supposed to be thinking of the future, she’s supposed to be _dead_. That said, it’s just as well Cloud was with us.”

“And that you thought to bring him with you into the lab,” the General agreed and Cloud was left with a feeling of euphoria. He was needed. He was special.

“So what are we going to do about her, Seph?” the black-haired First asked, polishing off the roast. Sephiroth frowned but before he could say anything, Zack was continuing, “We could leave Nibelheim and never come back. The farther away from her the better you’ll be.”

It was Cloud’s turn to frown, “What if he’s ordered back here, or is flying over? She’ll still try to grab him, or something.”

“It is only one suggestion but, yes, she’ll still be a threat if we go with that option. Another option is to have you attached to me permanently as an aide.”

“I think Cloud likes that one,” Zack teased as his young friend blushed.

A small smile played around Sephiroth’s lips, “However that would result in Cloud being a constant target. If Shin-Ra’s enemies, or my own, know that I can be weakened by killing him, then they will try to do so. Abduction and ransoming would also be a danger.” Neither of the SOLDIERs liked those possibilities.

Zack spoke up again, “Which leaves going back to the reactor and getting rid of her, it – whatever.”

“And we need to go back to the lab to find out what Hojo is up to,” Cloud added. The SOLDIERs looked at him blankly, “There was no dust, remember?”

Sephiroth continued to look bewildered but Zack’s face lit with enlightenment. “Oh yeah, you mentioned that earlier but I completely forgot.” He turned to his commanding officer, “For a place that’s been empty for nearly twenty years, it’s too clean.” The Silver General, who’d grown up in labs, and then in Shin-Ra’s shining tower, still didn’t understand. Everywhere he’d lived had been spotless. Yes, he knew that someone had to take out the trash and do the laundry but it was just done. Like the rising of the sun, it was one of those uncontrollable events in life that happened whether he did anything or not.

“Someone had washed the windows, cleaned the floor, and even watered the plants. Why,” Cloud explained further, “if the mansion and the labs were abandoned.”

“It was prepared for us,” the General concluded.

Cloud shook his head even as Zack disagreed, “Not for us, General. For you.” He pointed a fork full of pie at his CO.

The young corporal took up the tale as the commander chewed, “Zack said you were originally scheduled to go to Junon. That makes sense. It _is_ the largest reactor on Gaia and the second largest town. Then, at the last minute, you were switched to Nibelheim. Why?”

“Nibelheim’s reactor is a high producer, but the village is essentially a backwater pimple,” Zack stated. Cloud didn’t even try to defend his hometown. “And if it were a publicity thing; again, why weren’t you sent to Junon, or one of the new reactors in Wutai? Higher population means better exposure for Shin-Ra. ‘Look, we’re taking your concerns seriously. We’ve sent the Silver General himself to take care of you,’ kind of thing.”

“It doesn’t make sense for you to have been sent here, Sir. Yet you were, so… who arranged it?”

Sephiroth tiredly rubbed his eyes. He was enhanced beyond a normal SOLDIER First Class; genetically modified to have extraordinary endurance and stamina, to be able to out-last and out-think his opponents. Now, all Cloud could see was an exhausted man, barely more than ten years older than himself, being pushed to his limit. Sephiroth was such a legend that it was easy to forget he wasn’t yet thirty.

“Maybe after a good night’s sleep this will be easier to figure out. It’s been a weird few days,” the trooper suggested.

“Perhaps,” Sephiroth said. His companions had brought up such uncomfortable issues. Between that and the realization of how deeply he’d let that _thing_ crawl into his mind and control him, he was feeling splintered and detached. He didn’t want to think of what his presence here meant. He didn’t want to think about what they had to do about Jenova.

In fact, there was a part of himself – a small, secret part of himself, that was enjoying the three of them sitting around the small table, feet touching. It was almost as if he’d stepped back ten, or even twenty years, and was experiencing something that every other boy considered normal. That small, secret part of himself was jumping up and down happily shouting ‘Sleepover! Sleepover!’

It was a much more pleasant thought than this whole mission being some elaborate trap.

Zack interrupted his musings when he said to Cloud, “You do realize, my little blond friend, that you’re going to be the meat in our little sleep sandwich, don’t you?”

The corporal’s eyes widened in shock, “What?”

Chuckling, Zack took a bite of his apple, “You’re going to have to sleep between us to keep the nasty voice away.” He laughed when Cloud looked at the inn’s skinny little beds in total disbelief. Sephiroth was nearly two meters tall. Zack was taller still. Cloud, as much as he wished it different, was barely a meter and a half on a good day... with his boots on.

“No way,” he stated flatly. “If I get into one of those beds with you two I’ll be crushed. Dead.”

Zack laughed even harder, “Fuck, Cloud, you are freaking amazing. I thought for sure you’d do some virginal freak out about sleeping with a couple guys, but you didn’t even hesitate, did you?”

Cloud frowned, “Why would I? You said you needed me to do this.” He turned to Sephiroth, “You do need me to do this, don’t you, General?”

The cool-green eyes seemed somewhat amused, “I would certainly feel better about sleeping if I could touch you. However, I also share your doubts about the dimensions of the beds. Although, it’s my opinion, that one of us would fall out before you got, er, crushed.”

Zack grinned. He had great friends. “No worries. I’ll push the beds together while you two take your shower.” They were wonderful to tease.

Cloud’s frown disappeared. His eyes grew huge. Sephiroth froze with a pear halfway to his mouth.

“A shower,” the General repeated.

“Yeah,” the dark-haired First confirmed, “Sorry to say this, Seph, but you kinda stink. Plus you got, “ he flicked his fingers, “ _stuff_ in your hair.”

“Cloud and I should,” he paused minutely but Zack heard it, “take a shower. Together.”

“Yes, Sephiroth. You, and Cloud, should take a shower, together.” Cloud couldn’t help it, he squeaked in alarm. He hung his head at having made such a ridiculous sound but, really… he was to take a shower with the General? Be _naked_ in the shower with General Sephiroth? He was allowed to panic a little. What if he, y’know, got an erection? He’d get an erection, of _course_ he would. Zack knew it too, that’s why he was laughing. He was too embarrassed to look at either of them.

Cloud might have been reassured if he could’ve known what Sephiroth was thinking. He wasn’t unmindful of the young man’s distress but the General knew that being a soldier often required the men to share nearly everything: food, clothing, showers, even bedrolls. Those had been part of his life as leader of SOLDIER. They had been endured but not anticipated, not like he was anticipating seeing the little corporal naked.

Maybe, Sephiroth mused, Zack’s friend _wouldn’t_ be reassured to know the Silver General was wondering if his body was that beautiful dusky rose all over, that he was imagining the taste of smooth skin beneath warm tongue. That he wanted to delve into the secrets hidden behind rose-bud lips, and that he especially wanted to know what the youth’s erection looked like, for he was certain his little corporal would indeed become erect. As would he. A shower sounded like a _wonderful_ idea.

Sephiroth’s lips curled a little, he couldn’t stop them, but he dipped his head so that his companions wouldn’t see his look of anticipation and triumph. It may not be a bed as he’d originally planned, but a shower was an acceptable location for their first time.

It was a good thing he’d been trained to log the conversations occurring around him when he wasn’t paying attention, because Zack was still rambling on. “I’ve had a nice break from the headaches that Jenova-thingy causes, and she doesn’t affect me as strongly anyways, so you take Cloud with you. We don’t want to chance her getting her hooks in you again.” The SOLDIER knew his General. He knew nothing would make the man angrier than the idea that someone had control over his thoughts.

It was a scar left over from his childhood – if it could be called that, with Hojo in the labs when nothing about the warrior was allowed to be private. It was kind of mean, but the black-haired First had decided some time ago to use any and every opportunity to encourage Sephiroth to distance himself from that _thing_ in the reaction. From calling her a bitch, or an ‘it’, to mentioning the mind-control, he would use it all if it would save his friend from whatever she wanted.

“Until we get rid of or neutralize her, you two are going to be closer than brothers.” Sephiroth’s sly smile deepened. This time Zack saw it and he knew he’d been right when he thought the attraction was mutual. He hoped Cloud was ready for it.

The young corporal swallowed painfully and audibly, “He’s right, Sir. We can’t risk you.” He looked up and his face was pale, bright eyes huge in his narrow face. He was visibly trembling, but Cloud’s lips were set in a thin line of pure stubborn. Whatever his nerves, he was going to do this.

“Very well,” he agreed. He held out his hand. He was also unable to control the seductive purr in his voice, “Cloud, I would be honoured to have your company.”


	6. Showerhead

* * *

Nibelheim was an old town. It pre-dated the reactor, Cloud knew because when his parents moved here his mother had said all the old locals would do was sniff about the lowering quality of life since the ‘furrinners’ had taken over. She laughed about it, but she was one of those looked-down upon foreigners even after nearly twenty years.

Most of the bathrooms in the village also predated the reactor. Which meant no showers. Showers were an idea imported from Wutai during the war. The old-timers believed that, showers were one of those nasty, new-fangled ideas that would lead to barbarism and creeping moral decay. Cloud hadn’t even seen one until he’d moved to Midgar. The Mayor had one, built with money diverted from the waterworks project, but not even his brother was allowed to step into the precious cubicle tiled in imported slate. Everybody just got to hear about it. The old-timer’s would shake their heads and say it proved their point about corruption; the mayor wasn’t very popular even though he was a local boy.

The only other place to have a shower within the town was at the Inn. Shin-Ra didn’t keep permanent staff at the reactor anymore. The system was remotely monitored and, when an alarm went off in Midgar, they’d send a team out to fix it. Rather than maintaining barracks or allowing them to use the Shin-Ra Mansion, the company had contracted the Inn to provide lodgings. Cheap, relatively close, and maintenance free had been the thought in the accountant’s heart, except that, at the time, the Inn had been falling apart. It was dark, dingy, and depressing and suffering from dry rot. Plus, mice and other vermin found their way out of the walls and into the beds and the food. Employees had rebelled and a couple of them had had enough clout to make things happen.

The Inn was completely overhauled, from the basement to the chimney tops; everything was rebuilt, redesigned and reworked to give the place a bright, clean, modern look. As soon the construction crew was out the door, Old Gruber removed the comfy chairs and repainted the walls an ugly dark beige because the new atmosphere was ‘ee-mascue-laytin’ the cli-entell’. The lower level showers, put in for the use of any random, paying guest, had been left to fall into disrepair as being ‘unwholesome’. Gruber Junior carried buckets of heated water to the old claw-foot bathtub just like his grandpa used to do.

At least Old Gruber and Young Mr. Gruber – Gruber Junior’s dad, had had the sense not to allow the same thing to happen to the Shin-Ra showers. The area of the building that was set aside for Shin-Ra employees was practically larger than all the rest of the Inn. The Grubers cleaned it and made sure that it was sparkling for the odd times it was occupied by those ‘sissies from the city’ and they were richly paid for the scant work it took. There were the sleeping quarters, large enough for three beds, dorm-room style, and a decent sized seating area, and then there was the bathroom.

Cloud swore it was nearly the size of the whole main floor of the house he’d grown up in… and it was mostly bathtub. There were two shallow steps to climb to get into it, in case the engineers muscles were too tired from a day of pushing buttons at the reactor. Then, inside the lake-masquerading-as-a-tub, there were two steep stairs down that could double as a bench in case the whole team decided to share the water and have a party in it. Looking at it, because it was safer than looking at the tall, silver-haired man beside him, Cloud was sure that, if they filled it with water, he’d be able to swim a couple strokes, maybe more.

There were three showerheads, although that seemed too simple a term for them. There was the large, circular overhead one to get your head wet. Then there were two upright bars on the near corners with multiple nozzles that could be adjusted to cover the rest of your body. It was decadent, enormous and intimidating, and he was about to get naked with the General and _step into it_. Oh. My. God.

‘Steady breaths,’ he reminded himself. He’d faced down monsters and machines. He’d survived battles with unseen enemies, and it was amazing how little that reassured him in this situation. It was actually better to think about how absolutely, horrifyingly embarrassed he’d be if he passed out. If he couldn’t be brave, he’d be stubborn, so he took deep breaths and stayed on his feet.

“Cloud.” The young man looked up – way up, and was caught by those unique, grass-coloured eyes. People thought they were scary or weird but Cloud thought they were perfect and couldn’t imagine the General without them. The silver-haired warrior had such a _look_ in those eyes but Cloud didn’t know how to interpret it. “Put your hand here while I undress.”

Sephiroth placed the small, tough hand under his harness, over his heart. Long fingers reached for the fastenings of the famous leather coat. The corporal’s brain started skipping. _Ohgod. OOhgod._ _I’m gonna see the General naked!_ His heart sped up and it was all he could do not to check his chin for drool.

“I realize how difficult this is for you, Cloud. Your heart is beating very fast.” That smooth baritone, so silky and seductive wrapped around the young mountain boy’s brain – and other body parts. _OOOmuhgod._ _Breathe, idiot! Breathing’s good._ The General raised a slim finger and brushed lightly over the pulse point in Cloud’s neck. “I admire you tremendously. You have a great deal of courage.”

“Is st-stubbornness, Sir.” _Yay, a complete sentence!_ There was no safe place to look. Straight ahead was pearl coloured skin, down was out because he was not going to appear to be checking out the General’s package, and up meant looking into those hypnotic eyes. He closed his eyes and tried to think of something, anything to take his mind off of what was happening. _The prime numbers are 1, 3, 5, 7..._

A quirk of the lips, “Sometimes they’re the same thing, Cloud.” Sephiroth removed his coat and harness, and Cloud’s eyes opened without his consent. He took in the General’s perfectly shaped and oh-so wide chest and his gaze was drawn to the small pale pink disks that highlighted all that pearly skin. ‘Shit, Cloud,’ he ordered himself, ‘don’t look at his nipples, he’ll think you’re a perv.’ _Ohgod, they’re so pretty!_ Cloud squeezed his eyes shut to force his thoughts away from forbidden territory. _11, 13, 17..._

“I admit, at the start of this mission all I knew of you was that you were a friend of Zack’s. Many people call Zack friend so I thought little of that, or of you.”

That was... crushing, actually. Considering the work he’d been putting in to do better so he could one day get into SOLDIER. To realize the head of the program, his idol, and the subject of his sleeping fantasies, hadn’t even noted your existence. The spiral of diminishing self-esteem was broken by unexpected movement. The General’s hand had moved from his clothing to Cloud’s, removing belts, undoing buttons – in his pants! _What the fuck?_ Blushing bright red he realized that he’d said that out loud. “Sir, let me. I can do that,” he protested. If the General continued, he was gonna see....

Sephiroth just smiled, “Are you aroused, Cloud?” _Ohmy_ fucking _GOD!_ This was going to be _so_ humiliating. He wanted to run, but he couldn’t. The General needed him. He squeezed his eyes shut even tighter and tried to think of something, _anything_ , else.

“I am aroused as well.”

Big, blue eyes shot wide open and locked on the General’s cat-slit ones. Sephiroth had a lazy, taunting smile flirting on those wonderful lips. Everything in the mountain boy stopped. ‘The General couldn’t mean...’ Cloud couldn’t even finish the thought.

“The first thing I noticed about you, was your eyes,” he ran a thumb under one, “Even without mako they are luminescent. Did you know that, Cloud?” He mutely shook his head. “In the tunnel, we moved together so perfectly; our bodies matched, our minds synchronized,” Sephiroth’s voice stroked over him, “It made me wonder what we would be like in bed.” His thumb had moved to caress the little Corporal’s full lower lip.

It was nerves that caused the young man’s tongue to slip out to moisten suddenly dry lips. It was an accident that he licked the tip of the General’s finger. It didn’t stop Sephiroth from humming in pleasure. Sephiroth didn’t remove his thumb; in fact he dipped it into that moist mouth, just a bit. “So brave, my little Cloud. So loyal and determined. You humble me.”

Cloud was shivering, an all over trembling that he could hear in his breath. He was so hard that the only thing holding up his standard-issue pants was his erection. Pale then flushed in turn, he nevertheless remembered to keep his hand in contact with the General. “Sir, don’t,” he protested, then stopped. What exactly was he protesting?

“Of course, Cloud,” he conceded verbally but Sephiroth’s body said he’d won.

“We should clean ourselves. Zack will be wanting to shower as well. I wouldn’t put it past him to charge in and join us if we take too long.” Sephiroth finished stripping them both with a ruthless efficiency. He wouldn’t let Cloud help, not even to remove his boots. Instead, he calmly shifted Cloud’s hand to his head and dropped to his knees in front of the smaller man. _Ohgod._

The only thing that saved it from being completely erotic was the fact that Sephiroth was too tall to breathe directly on his engorged penis. On the other hand, he managed to lick Cloud’s stomach just fine.

“Sir, sir! I’m gonna... If you don’t stop.” _Ohfuck_. He was begging. “Please, stop.” This was too close to fulfilling one of his unacknowledged dreams and it had brought him _way_ too close to peaking.

“My apologies, Cloud. I’m not used to restraint.” Sephiroth was purring again, low and enticing, and sounding so satisfied that the young blond couldn’t help but believe the General was indeed used to getting what he wanted. And it looked to Cloud that, _gods!_ the General wanted _him._ At least he restrained himself long enough for them to get in the tub and get under the spray. The Silver General behaved long enough to wash his thigh-length hair. He pulled it forward draping it over and around the smaller man. As Sephiroth worked the shampoo through it, it moved over their bodies; the long strands caressing their naked skin. When Sephiroth soaped and scrubbed his body, he took time to slide his hands slowly, enjoying both the feel of his own skin and the young corporal’s avid gaze.

Cloud no longer kept just one hand on that broad chest; he had both his hands on it. He’d given up on prime numbers, because he could feel the General’s hard little nipples stabbing his palms. He gathered soap bubbles and watched fascinated as his hands massaged them into the General’s ribs and belly. He flexed the tips of spread fingers, digging into the hard flesh with his short nails, just to hear the Silver Warrior catch and hold his breath. Cloud was so close he could almost reach out with his tongue to catch the water running in drops over that skin. He wanted to. _Shiva’s tits_ , did he want to. He swayed.

“I should,” his brain was fizzing, “I should wash. Zack’s waiting.”

Sephiroth took the soap, lathered his hands, and cooed, “Allow me.” Long, strong fingers washed, massaged and stroked all over Cloud’s body: neck, shoulders, chest and arms. He was surrounded by the General: smell, sight, sound and the _feel_ of him. He had to grab on to the General for balance his head was spinning so hard. He was moaning, he could hear it sometimes but really, all he was aware of was the man in front of him. The corporal wasn’t a virgin, but half-drunken mattress bouncing hadn’t prepared him for this all out assault.

The General sank to his knees in front of the youth, washing and caressing his flat stomach, lean hips, and long thighs – all the way down to his toes. Then he started up the back, reaching around so Cloud’s smaller body was enveloped and surrounded by his. He leaned closer, to soap and slide up the long quads to tight buttocks, close enough to breathe on Cloud’s straining penis, but he didn’t touch, not with cheek or tongue – not even to lick up those tempting pearls of pre-cum. If long hair happened to brush over it, it was purely accidental, or that’s what he’d claim.

Jagged moans, panted breaths caught and held, and indecipherable murmured pleas resulted from every action. The small trooper was twisting and thrusting helplessly. His fingers clutched at Sephiroth’s strong shoulders silently demanding the older man finish it, do _something_ , let him cum, anything….

Sephiroth thought he’d never seen anything so entrancing.

He shifted his attention to Cloud’s back, reaching up to clean and massage the spine, and around the shoulder blades. He didn’t stand up, but remained on his knees. “Cloud,” he said. He had to repeat it before the young blond gathered himself up enough to look back at his General. Even then, he could only get his eyes half open.

“Sir?”

“Cum for me, Cloud,” he ordered softly. Then he bent and licked the swollen head of Cloud’s penis like it was made of chocolate ice cream, twirling his tongue softly around it then pressing firmly to get a better mouthful. Finally, he sucked hard, taking it all down.

“S-sir!” Corporal Strife gasped, and then he obeyed, helplessly, completely. A strangled scream forced its way out of his clenched jaw as thin, sculpted lips swallowed him, sucked him, and squeezed every drop from his pulsing body. “ _Fuck!_ ” he panted. “Sir, I’m gonna pass out if you don’t stop that. I swear to fucking gods.” His legs were shaking, he couldn’t catch his breath. _Ooohfuck_. His brain was whiting out as the silver-haired warrior gave one last, long, slow lick from base to tip.

He stood up, holding his lover’s slim body upright, smiling down at hazy eyes in possessive triumph. The little corporal was his.

Cloud blinked hard and took a couple deep breaths. He looked into those smug cat eyes and his eyes narrowed. “My turn,” he declared and dropped down before the General could protest.

He was tempted to swallow down the General’s cock like he had done to Cloud’s, but two things stopped him; one, he’d never done it before and figured there was bound to be a learning curve, and two, the General’s erection reached up past the man’s belly. The young soldier hadn’t spent time checking out other guys in the shower or anything like that, but even he knew that the General’s erection was longer than normal. Not the best choice for his first time giving head, but there were other things he could do.

“Cloud, that isn’t necessary,” Sephiroth declared.

“Don’t care,” he responded, pressing that hard flesh to his face, “I want to.” Silver hair draped around him so that he was wrapped in a cocoon of scent and touch. He would do to the General the things that he enjoyed doing to himself. He closed his eyes and indulged his other senses.

He cupped the General’s sac, squeezing gently, massaging the small globes encased there. Sephiroth was hairless, but the skin was drawing tight. He pulled down lightly, delaying the inevitable. He let one finger slide across the sensitive skin between scrotum and anus, barely pressing as it moved over and back. It was so soft and silky. He gripped the General’s erection and squeezed, not so gently. He moved his hand up along its length, enjoying its velvety texture. It was hot and hard, and Cloud had a sudden visceral fantasy of having that long length seated inside him, thrusting gently, and he swayed in renewed desire.

“Cloud,” Sephiroth protested, his eyes closing to mere slivers.

“Hush, Sir,” the corporal commanded firmly, while he added tongue and lips and teeth to the mix, nipping at whatever surface presented itself: hips, belly, groin or balls, before settling into a slow rhythm to match his hand, running his open mouth up the side of the General’s erection. He tasted as he smelled; a little spicy and exotic, a deep, rich musk that Cloud wanted to roll in so that everyone would know. He buried his nose in the light dusting of silver pubic hairs and inhaled until he was dizzy. It didn’t take long.

He stretched so that he could suck his cock’s sensitive tip into his mouth. He licked up the pre-cum gathered there, dipping his tongue into the slit, but it was a little higher than he could comfortably reach while on his knees so he had to regretfully let it go. He opened his mouth and let his lips and tongue run down the big, ropey vein. He stopped to nip, scraping lightly with his teeth. From the sounds the General was making, he liked the hint of danger.

Sephiroth was panting, nearly frantic and close to being unable to control his responses. He was making _noises_! He’d never experienced anything like it before. It was maddening and wonderful but unsettling, and he’d had enough of being unsettled. “Cloud,” he commanded.

“Cum for me, Sir, like I did for you.” Cloud ordered, “Now,” and he pressed the tip of one slim finger up into the General.

It was bad enough that the teenage corporal was ordering around his older, more experienced, commanding officer, Sephiroth thought, but what made it completely improper was that he couldn’t help but obey. He came in great, muscle clenching, gouts, shouting out his release in a most undignified way, but he couldn’t stop himself. This was the most erotic encounter he’d had for many, many years.

He grabbed the young man and hauled him up; all the way up, so that his feet left the floor leaving his only option to wrap his legs around Sephiroth’s waist. He dragged that sweet face up to his and kissed him hard and domineering. Instead of retreating or softening, Cloud responded with all his youthful enthusiasm, and _pride_ that he was here in this shower with his hero and that he’d made the General cum so hard that he was trembling.

Sephiroth forgot his need to assert his dominance in his exploration of the textures and tastes of Cloud’s mouth. One hand ran down the youth’s back, following the sleek skin running between tight cheeks until his fingertips could rub against puckered flesh. He gave a pleased purr when his soft touch resulted in the corporal’s penis regaining some of its hardness. Ah, the recuperative powers of the young, the General thought smugly.

However, they had both forgotten about the black-haired SOLDIER waiting in the other room. There was a loud knocking on the door. “Do you know how thin this wall is when you have enhanced hearing?”

The two of them froze, like guilty teenagers caught necking on their parents’ couch. “One minute.”

They stared at each other; Cloud in sudden awareness, Sephiroth in consternation. In fact, Sephiroth looked like a little boy who’d had his toy taken away. He looked... put out, was the best way the corporal could describe it, and it was such an odd look on that aristocratic, dignified face that Cloud couldn’t help but giggle.

“Hmm,” Sephiroth responded, the look deepening. “Perhaps we should prepare for sleep.” Cloud nodded, sniggering too much to speak. He unwrapped his legs but Sephiroth didn’t put him down. “If you would turn off the water, Cloud.”

“Yes, Sir,” the blond reached over to turn the heavy tap.

“You can call me ‘Sephiroth’ now; after all, we are lovers.”

Cloud looked up into those cat-slit eyes, and an odd quirk of humour drove him to say, “I’ll work on that, Sir.”

“Hmm.” In revenge, he carried the corporal out of the bath like a doll, not allowing his feet to touch the floor. He carried the smaller man while they towelled off, when they brushed their teeth. He’d let him down to use the toilet but, as soon as he was done, Sephiroth scooped him up again. At least the embarrassment of having to pee in front of his lover had stopped the giggling. Mostly. He had Cloud carry their dirty clothes while _he_ carried Cloud out of the bathroom, legs once again wrapped firmly around his waist where they were supposed to be, Sephiroth had decided.

Zack was leaning against the wall just outside the door. He’d already stripped down in anticipation of his shower. “Well, it’s nice to hear you’ve got your stamina back, General,” he teased quietly, “That was better than a porn movie.”

Sephiroth didn’t bother looking, but he did notice that Cloud glanced down the First’s body then away, blushing lightly. Zack wasn’t just teasing, it seemed. “Yes it was,” the General replied blandly. “There’s still some hot water left.”

Then Zack really looked at his young friend. He was curled up like a giant stuffy against the General’s chest. The happy, satisfied look in his eyes was one Zack had never seen there before, and the black-haired First was stricken with doubts. _Was_ it such a good thing if these two got together? Cloud was such an innocent; a decent guy who deserved to be someone’s special sweetie. Would Sephiroth, private and controlled, be that someone or had Zack essentially pushed the boy into a relationship that would break his heart. Cloud was tough but, if that happened, would he be tough enough?

He glared warningly at his commander.

Sephiroth recognized that look: a mama wolf protecting her cubs. It amused him in a way. In a serious fight, the black-haired First would lose, but he also knew that Fair was dead serious about this. The young SOLDIER had never been intimidated by whom or what he was and he _would_ fight the General if he thought it necessary.

“Don’t worry, Commander, my intentions are honourable,” he murmured. He meant it. He had decided that he would have this contrary young man in his life and in his bed. The argument that the General’s favour would make the youth a target for assassination or kidnapping was valid, but irrelevant. Sephiroth would just have to make sure Cloud was protected. He could tell Zack knew he was serious. The First’s stance relaxed, his eyes brightened, and his smile came back.

“Okay then. Congrats and everything.”

“Do I get a say in this, Sir?” Cloud peeped, while nuzzling sleepily against that broad, warm chest.

“Only if you say ‘yes’, Cloud.” The blond just smiled and gave the General’s collarbone a lazy kiss.

“Awwww, that’s so sweeeet!” Zack cooed but it sounded forced, “I’m only having a quick shower. Ten minutes, twenty tops. Just in case you’re thinking of, y’know, doing something.” He didn’t wait for a response but eased around them into the bathroom. Sephiroth frowned at a glimpse of something ‘off’ in his friend’s reaction. He had expected a little more posturing, or teasing, or something from the man. Zack had obviously taken the young trooper as his protégé, and his friend, and yet, aside from that glare, he had hardly said anything. It was worrisome.

Why was it worrisome? Why wasn’t he relieved?

As he carried the young corporal to the large, sleeping surface Zack had created, Sephiroth pondered the question. Zack was an excellent SOLDIER, always had been. He was a decent Second-in-Command; not good with the paperwork, but Sephiroth didn’t need help with that. He needed what Zack brought with him, the ability to soften behaviours that others found abrupt or offensive in the General. And, as much as Zack’s humour was often loud and crude, he could appreciate Sephiroth’s more subtle version.

He’d called Sephiroth ‘friend’ when the older man had forgotten what the word was supposed to mean. He’d been friends with Genesis and Angeal, at least he’d thought they were friends, but they had left him without explanation or even inviting him to go with them. For nearly three years, Genesis had allowed Sephiroth to think he was dead. It was only when he wanted something from Sephiroth, needed it, that the twisted former First had made contact.

Angeal... Angeal had made Zack kill him. He had, in fact, betrayed the both of them with that one act. He had given up and abandoned Sephiroth once again so perhaps, he and Angeal hadn’t been true friends.

Zack, on the other hand, had disobeyed orders and risked death to come rescue him from the lab. _He_ had thought Sephiroth important enough to risk everything for. Not because he was the General, or Shin-Ra’s pet experiment, but because they were friends.

Enhanced hearing is a mixed blessing, the General decided, as he listened to Zack in the shower masturbating; alone and perhaps lonely because of them. That was unacceptable for his friend. He rolled that word around in his head, liking the feel of it. Tonight, he would share a bed with his lover and his friend. He would touch them and hold them. Comforting and being comforted by their mere presence.

He pulled back the blanket that Zack had made by tying them all together somehow. As SOLDIERs they hardly needed it, but there was something wonderfully symbolic about snuggling under the covers. He was indeed having a sleepover with his friends. The little inner child clasped happy hands under his chin, still yelling ‘Sleepover! Sleepover with my friends!’

He climbed on the bed and put Cloud down in the center. The young corporal was careful to maintain contact even though he was more than half asleep. Sephiroth remembered he’d been injured during Genesis’ assault. Looking down into the tired face of the soldier, Sephiroth realized why Zack’s reaction seemed off. He recognized the look in the Commander’s eyes as a milder version of what he’d experienced after Angeal’s... death.

Zack was tired.

Not physically perhaps but mentally and emotionally. What they’d learned at the reactor; what Genesis had said, had disturbed the young First deeply. Cloud had been hurt, and Zack probably felt responsible for that – and for dragging him back to his despised hometown in the first place. Then Sephiroth had ‘wigged out’ as he had phrased it, leaving Zack in command which wasn’t easy for him, he was too easy going. He’d had to make the decisions for all of them while Sephiroth was off planning to destroy the planet. Despite knowing that he’d been pushed in that direction by Jenova’s voice, the General felt ashamed at having fallen under her spell.

He was firmly ensconced behind his small lover, the fit between them was perfect, when the black haired swordsman left the bathroom, still towelling off his hair, another knotted low at the waist. He wasn’t looking at them. Sephiroth thought that was a bad sign. “Zack,” he questioned.

Zack still wouldn’t look at them, fidgeting a little, before babbling out what was on his mind. “Yeah, I was thinking. Y’know, you and Cloud might like some time alone together. I can always get another bed. It’s–“

“Zack,” Sephiroth interrupted, “You are not sleeping somewhere else. Neither Cloud nor I would be able to sleep properly.” He held up the blanket in invitation.

“Yeah, but you and Cloud just, y’know, started your relationship.” He was tempted though, Sephiroth could tell.

“You are our friend, Zack.” He’d never said that word to his SiC before. It was long past due. “Hurry, before Cloud gets cold,” the General ordered

Cloud spoke up, “You’re being a dork, Zack. C’mere,” He patted the bed and held out his hand. That was all it took for Zack to drop the towels and climb into bed. Cloud reached out and took Zack’s hand, snugging the First in to rest under his chin, enfolding wet hair and broad shoulders in his arms. Sephiroth reached over to rest his hand on Zack’s hip and Cloud sighed out a soft, “That’s better,” once they were comfortable. Holding Zack like this, nestled up to his heart, Cloud could sense the tension leaving the SOLDIER.

The events of the day – and the night, were finally catching up with the young soldier. He was warm, relaxed, and his friends were safe. Life, at this point, was good. “I’m not gonna get cold; yer both like furnaces,”

“It’s the mako again,” Zack murmured, “raises the metabolism, remember.”

“Hmm. Jus’ don’ leggo of me, either of you,” Cloud yawned, obviously fading into sleep, “ If iz too hot jus’ push the blanket down, ‘kay?”

“We’ll do that, Cloud.”

“‘Kay. Night, Zack. Night, Sir.”

“My name is Sephiroth, Cloud.”

“Yezzir. I‘ try to ‘member that, Sir” the young man said. Sephiroth thought of protesting but Zack was chuckling. It was a good sound to fall asleep to.


	7. Summoning the Muse

* * *

As Cloud neared the cottage he noticed a person standing and looking at the building. He approached cautiously but caution disappeared when he recognized the figure. He was in his late twenties, maybe early thirties, of average height, slim, with darkish hair standing up every which way. 

“Dad?”

“Hey, Raincloud,” Damon Strife responded. Then he turned and saw his son, “Oh hey, I guess I can’t call you that. This is Corporal Strife at the ready, I see.”

Cloud looked down over himself and, sure enough, he was in full battle dress including the materia bracer the General had given him earlier. This was bewildering, he decided, so he would ignore it in favour of a more urgent question, “What are you doing here, Dad?”

“Just checking out your home,” The older man turned back to the building. “You’ve done a good job building it. Strong enough to weather the worst storms. Even if the structure’s destroyed you’ve got a good foundation. You’ll be able to rebuild. Your grandmother would be proud of you.”

Cloud had been examining the cottage as his father spoke. It looked ordinary to him, like every second building in Nibelheim. It had fitted Nibel stone, oak doors and shutters; it looked sturdy enough. His last sentence jerked him out of his bemused assessment. “My grandmother?” He’d never met his grandmothers, any of them. There’d never been enough money to go visit.

“And that’s a shame, son, she could’ve taught you a lot.” His father seemed to be responding to something he was sure he hadn’t said aloud. Had he said it aloud? And what had his grandmother, any of them, to do with his father being here in this place. Wherever this place was.

Damon Strife turned to face away from the cottage, “Nice setting you picked, Corporal.” He looked around, suddenly seeing a landscape. It wasn’t Nibelheim. It was maybe somewhere around Costa del Sol? The trees looked similar to the ones he’d seen around the resort town on his way through to Midgar. It had been nice there, sunny but not scorching.

He looked at the cottage again. It could’ve been transplanted direct from any village in the Nibel Mountains. What was it doing here? For that matter....

“Dad,” Cloud was confused, “why are you here?” he asked again.

“I told you, I wanted to see your home. You going to invite me in, son?” He smiled and Cloud, who hadn’t seen that smile in over ten years, felt his heart shatter. Blindly, he nodded, and reached out to grab the handle on the door. ‘Funny,’ he thought, ‘I don’t remember a handle.’ They walked in side-by-side and he realized that they were the same height. He’d always thought of his dad as a giant, but maybe that was because his personality had been so large. He wasn’t crying but his throat was tight and his eyes were burning. He didn’t have time to cry; he just wanted to imprint this picture of his father, alive and happy.

He watched his dad look around, but Cloud didn’t care about the inside of the cottage, His father looked so young, Cloud thought sadly. He wasn’t tall but he was lean, his eyes were bright blue, and his hair was thick and untamed; seeing his father so healthy Cloud realized that he’d inherited those features from him. Most of his memories of his dad are of him in bed, skinny, eyes dull and hair thin and lank. His parents had had very little time together before, before he got sick. Barely ten years. He wished he remembered more of them together.

“I see you kept your mother’s books. Oh look, there’s my guitar,” Cloud had just vague memories of his father playing the instrument but he could clearly remember his mother pulling it out and stroking it, looking sad and happy at the same time.

Damon Strife walked around the generous room, trailing his fingers over the walls. He walked a little like Zack. “It’s a little bare, isn’t it, Corporal?”

“What,” Cloud moved his gaze to the walls. “Umm, I guess.”

“Well, you _are_ going to invite friends in, aren’t you? People you care about. It’s a good place structurally, it’ll certainly keep them safe, but will it keep them warm?”

“I, uh,” he frowned, blinking. This was a dream, wasn’t it? Why should he be worried about friends visiting his dreams?

“You do have friends – your General and that bouncy First. You want to protect them, right?”

“You know I do.” How did his father know about them, and why was he calling General Sephiroth _his_ General? His father couldn’t know... could he?

This was such an odd dream. He could remember his dad trying to teach him to fish. Why wasn’t he dreaming about that?

“It’s too cold to fish. Besides, this isn’t a dream, Corporal, not really. This is the haven of your soul, and you need to brighten it up. Your life can’t be this dull and boring. Put hangings on the walls, rugs on the floor. You need a couch to sit on or beds to sleep in. Some music, maybe, and a fireplace to sit in front of and relax. How about some games to play to pass the time? You need to _really_ make it your home, inside and out, before there’s an emergency.”

“I guess,” he was still bewildered. “How do I do that?” Could he dream up the decorations? Could he be dreaming a dream where he’s in a dream of dreaming? He smiled at the thought, it fit perfectly in this bizarre place.

“It’s only bizarre if you think it is, son.” His father smiled, and ruffled the pointy hair his son had inherited from him. “Now to decorate: visualize what you’d like to have in your home and put it out there.” Cloud just frowned. Dreaming is an involuntary reflex. How can you deliberately dream something into existence?

His father sighed, “What would you really like to see on your wall, right here.” He pointed to a section near the door. “Anything you like.”

“Anything?” When his father nodded Cloud thought, oh, well that was easy. He knew what he wanted, had wanted ever since he’d seen it at the Midgar Museum.

“Hang it up now, son.” On the wall, maybe a half the size of the original was a silk tapestry of the Wutaiin god, Leviathan. A recreation of an ancient hanging, it portrayed a god on guard, quiescent for now but ready to protect and defend its people against all threats.

“Oh, I like it. It suits you, Corporal.” He stood, hands on hips, nodding his head in approval before turning back to Cloud who was staring open-mouthed at the decoration. “Finish it up before you go, son. You never know when you and your friends will need shelter from the storms.” Damon Strife walked toward the door.

“Are you leaving, Dad?”

“I am. I’m going to go check on your mother, make sure she’s doing okay.”

“But–” he protested.

He walked back to Cloud and put a hand on his shoulder, “You’ll be fine, Corporal Strife. You have good friends. You have a purpose. You’ll be better than fine.” He placed a gentle kiss on his son’s brow then headed toward the door. Cloud wanted to protest, to stop him from walking out, from leaving again. One last look, “I love you, son, and I am so very proud of you.”

Cloud’s face was wet. He was crying. “I love you too, Dad.” With a short wave and a soft smile, Damon Strife left his son’s home, fading out before reaching the door. Cloud watched, hoping he would reappear but knowing he wouldn’t, until, finally, he turned to his empty home and decided he’d start with a fireplace, with lots of apple wood so it would smell nice.

He wondered if Sephiroth had ever smelled apple wood burning.

* * *

  
It was his stomach that woke him up. It seemed to think it needed food, even though he had distinct memories of consuming mounds and kilos of food just the evening before. Besides, he didn’t want to move, it was too comfy where he was. He was all warm and snuggled right into friendly arms. Wonderful way to wake up. Flat chest though, so it wasn’t perfect, but it was still good.

Unfortunately, he now had to go pee as well.

‘Screw it,’ he thought and bounced out of bed. He stood beside the huge surface they’d slept on, stretching and cracking his spine, while he looked down on his friends. Sephiroth was spooned up right close to the small blond. The look on his face said he was thinking all manner of wonderfully unseemly thoughts. It was a new look for the man and Zack decided it looked good on him. _Fuck._ He hoped, he really hoped, the two of them would make it as a couple.

They had a lot against them. Shin-Ra brass would go monkey-nuts at the idea of _the_ General Sephiroth and a lowly corporal. There was the age difference, nearly ten years, the brass would proceed to bat-fuck over that, and the media would be relentless. Of course all that presupposed that they made it out of Nibelheim alive and reasonably sane. So far the chance of that was looking pretty good, actually.

Cloud was flexing his hand on the spot Zack had recently vacated, a small frown between his brows. He obviously missed having a body to hug, or else he was worried about his friend even in his sleep. Knowing Cloud, he’d go with the worried. The kid had an urge to protect that was oceans wide. He was also a ballsy little guy. He’d seen the tiny smile on Cloud’s face when he’d called Sephiroth ‘sir’ last night. He’d been _teasing_ the General.

People’s reaction to Sephiroth had very little variation. They were afraid. They were awestruck. They wanted something. SOLDIERs reactions were often similar except with loyalty and respect as additional options. Not many of them had the General down as a target for friendly mockery. Or if they did, they didn’t have the guts to follow through, which was a shame because if ever a man needed what friendly teasing symbolized it was the unique, and lonely, General Sephiroth. In Zack's opinion, anyway. 

“Zack, whaz’appening?” Cloud slurred, eyes barely open, “You ‘kay?”

“I’m fine, Spike. Awake and ready to face the day.” His voice wasn’t loud, but it was definitely cheerful. Nothing like a good night’s sleep to restore one’s optimism. He crouched to pull a clean uniform out of his duffel. “I’m gonna go scrounge up some breakfast. You and Seph can sleep in.”

“How can anyone sleep with you thumping around, Commander Fair.”

“It’s never bothered you before,” Zack defended himself. Cloud raised an interrogatory eyebrow. “Seph and I have shared tents before – in the field, on missions, I swear..”

“You disturbed Cloud, which disturbed me. I will have to learn to filter his actions while I sleep.”

Cloud’s eyes shot open and he swallowed visibly. The way the General was talking this wasn’t a one-time deal.

Zack, watching his friend’s face, took pity on the kid. Perhaps he’d been too groggy to hear some of the conversation last night. To help him remember, Zack prodded his grumpy commanding officer, “So you’re serious about this being the start of a relationship?”

Sephiroth, not the friendliest person before his first cup of coffee and unable to see Cloud’s face, just growled, “I said so, didn’t I.”

“Just wanted to make sure you hadn’t changed your mind since last night.”

More growling, “You said something about obtaining breakfast? That sounds like an excellent plan. Why don’t you pursue it?”

Zack leaned over and stage-whispered to Cloud, “He needs coffee, so be warned, he bites in the morning.”

Cloud, who’d obviously been enjoying a nice dream at the mention of a relationship, smiled softly and commented happily, “He can bite me anytime.” Zack burst out laughing because, judging by the predatory expression that appeared on the General’s face, Cloud was going to get to live up to that statement.

“I’ll be back in an hour guys, _with_ _company_ , so be cleaned up and presentable by then. He easily dodged the pillow that was thrown at him, and gently shut the door behind him. He heard a growl and Cloud’s laughing protest, “I was kidding, Sir!” as he walked down the hall. Maybe he’d give them an hour and a half.

He stood for a minute at the window. Not to look at the view so much, it just looked up the valley towards the mansion, but to allow his mind to calm a bit. He wanted to know if Jenova was still ‘out there’ shouting at Sephiroth. Sure enough, the hum that he’d identified as her was still out there, dimmed by distance but still recognizable.

_Shit._

He wasn’t an expert on telepathic, alien, psycho bitches by any means, but he couldn’t believe her determination to ‘talk’ to the General was a good thing. And the voice, presence, thing _was_ focussed on Sephiroth. Whatever effect it was having on Zack was accidental; like being caught in the backwash of a large freighter. At least here, in the Inn in the middle of the village surrounded by Nibelheimmers – the ignorant pricks, her voice was hardly audible, not that he’d ever heard words like Seph had, but it was down from a strident buzz to a mushy hum

The noises coming from the room behind him were louder now, and recognizable. They were certainly more fun than listening to the psycho bitch.

Cloud and the General had looked so cute all nestled together this morning. Zack was glad, and a little envious, that they were finding time to enjoy each other in the midst of all this craziness. Love was weird. Itty-bitty small town Cloud captures the heart of the big bad sophisticate Sephiroth – details at eleven!

Then there was Zack himself. Who’d have thought he would’ve set his heart on an innocent little Cetra flower girl who’d barely been kissed before he’d arrived on the scene. Those below-the-plate dudes were pussies and fucking stupid to let Aerith’s step-mom scare them away. Mind you, he should be grateful. The old battleaxe had kept the way clear for him. He sure did miss her.

The noises behind him picked up a little. Before he got too envious and decided to join them, he went down the stairs to the Inn’s main floor. It was a lot emptier this morning. Eating out for breakfast must not be socially acceptable up here. The elders Cloud had talked about probably thought it was part of that ‘creeping moral decay’ disease afflicting the rest of the world.

It was Mrs. Gruber at the desk this morning. She seemed like a decent enough person, old enough to be his mother, of course, but still good for a friendly flirt. He got fresh coffee and a strudel thingy out of it, and took them outside to enjoy the sunrise. He kept an eye on his watch. He’d like to be able to give the new couple upstairs the whole day in bed but they couldn’t really afford that. He couldn’t help smiling at the memory of his friend yesterday, tearing through the books pointing out all the discrepancies. Cloud as a book nerd, who’d’ve thought it.

They had to shut Jenova up, that was their number one priority. Then they’d go back to the lab where Seph and Cloud would go through that fake-o library. Maybe he’d go explore those coffin rooms while the other two did their best to figure out what was going on in Dr. Creepy’s head. That thought reminded him of something else they should do, or actually, something _he_ could do while his friends were otherwise occupied.

From thought to deed took only a heartbeat. He entered the number into his PHS and stuffed the last of his strudel into his mouth. He went back into the Inn as he waited for the call to be answered.

“Commander Fair,” Tseng’s controlled tones acknowledged the identity of the caller but Zack couldn’t tell if the Turk was happy or intrigued or pissed off. Even Sephiroth had more personality on the phone.

“Hey, Tseng. I’m here in Nibelheim and I have a question for you.”

“Questions can be dangerous things.” Tseng and Zack had developed a decent working relationship over several missions. He knew that Tseng’s blunt sentence really meant they needed to use oblique statements and codes words from here in. Obviously the Turk knew something... interesting, about Nibelheim.

“Yeah, I know, but anything is better than nothing,” _It’s important or I wouldn’t be asking_. “Hang on while I order breakfast.” Zack placed the mouthpiece against his chest while he ordered only slightly less food than last night’s feast. What he was really doing was letting Tseng decide for himself whether or not he was willing to risk his career, and maybe his life, by answering.

Once the order was placed he lifted the phone back up, “Still there?” _You willing to risk it?_

“For now.” _Depends on the question._

“It occurred to me that Sephiroth should’ve been sent to Junon. In fact, I think his original orders _did_ have him going there.” _Who changed his orders?_

“The President signed off on the change.”

_Shit._ Zack had been hoping that the answer would be Heideggar. The man was a glory-hound and it was just as likely that he would’ve sent the Silver General away from Junon to grab the spotlight himself. He was also as resolute as cooked spaghetti. Just about anybody on Shin-Ra’s Board could’ve influenced the slimy fuck into redirecting Sephiroth here, so the pool of suspects would’ve been larger but probably safer overall.

The fact that the President himself changed the orders limited the options. Most of the people on the board were either yes-men, like Heideggar and Palmer, or Shin-Ra ignored them, like his son Rufus and Tuesti. In fact, there were only two people that he would’ve done this for. Two very powerful and very dangerous people: Scarlett and Hojo.

“And he thought it was a good idea to send him most powerful SOLDIER to a backwoods nothing village to take out a few monsters?” _Who convinced him?_

“I’m not sure of his reasoning.” _I’ll have to think about whether it’s safe to tell you._

“I hear you. Thanks for you help, Tseng. Be safe, man.” _Don’t take any chances._

“You too, Zack.”

So it was either Scarlett or Hojo, he mused, folding his PHS and putting it away. Of the two, his money would be on Hojo. He’d worked in Nibelheim as evidenced by the lab in the basement, probably with Sephiroth since the General had recognized the place. He had a long-standing interest in Sephiroth and always wanted to do more tests that the General avoided. Problem with Hojo was who knew what drove that sick fuck? This could be some kind of experiment in repressed memories. It could be Psycho Doc’s way of tugging on the General’s leash trying to re-establish dominance over the most powerful warrior the world had ever experienced, except for maybe that Jenova thing. Or he could have something completely different in mind.

Scarlett’s motives were easier to understand. She wanted the money and media attention currently given to the SOLDIER program to be redirected to her Weapons Research and Development department. The danger level was variable with Scarlett. She was as likely to arrange for them to be shot with a long-lens camera as to be shot with bullets. Actual death or deadly scandal, either would achieve her goals.

He’d have to warn the two upstairs to keep the intimate touches to a minimum once outside the Shin-Ra wing of the Inn. Although, he _was_ talking about Sephiroth here; he was nothing _but_ controlled in public. Hopefully Cloud would understand that Seph’s control didn’t mean he liked the blond any less. If he couldn’t accept the man’s weird interpretation of the rules of relationships then they were doomed – which would be too bad as they’d certainly got off (pun intended) to a good start.

Remembering the noises coming from the bathroom last night and the bedroom this morning, Zack had to shift a little as his pants got tight. _Fuck_. He wished he could figure out what it was about his commanding officer that made a firmly hetero-male want to throw his innate sexual orientation out the window.

Even cute little Cloud, himself the subject of locker room fantasies – and wouldn’t that make him sink through the floor in embarrassment if he knew, didn’t have the same effect on the dark-haired First. No, it wasn’t sweet, cuddly, endearing little Cloud but cool, aloof Sephiroth, with his stark colouring and arrogant self-control, that made him go ‘what would it be like?’

Just part of the man’s mystique, Zack concluded with a helpless sigh. At least Zack had someone special he could channel all that lust towards. His fingers were dialling before her picture fully formed, “Hey, Aerith! Are you still in bed?”


	8. Just Can't Get Enough

* * *

The door had barely closed behind their bouncy companion when Sephiroth dragged his little lover onto his back, “So, I can bite you anytime, can I?” he growled playfully.

“I was kidding, Sir!” Cloud protested, but he was chuckling so the General decided to ignore him and nibble on that swan-like neck. His lashes were long enough to brush delicately along the surface providing a maddening contrast to strong teeth.

It also tickled and made Cloud laugh harder.

“It’s commonly known that I have no sense of humour, Cloud. Therefore, I have no option but to believe you mean what you say.” His neck tasted good, as did his shoulders and collarbone. “Besides, you were supposed to call me by my name.” Sephiroth was not susceptible to the activity, but he had observed behaviour between friends that indicated that tickling was an acceptable form of punishment for mild personal infractions. He was pleased to discover that it worked.

“Do you surrender?” By this time he had the blond’s wrists gripped in one long hand and raised over head, leaving his sides unprotected.

“I surrender, I surrender!” Cloud laughed, squirming helplessly under the larger man.

“And you’ll start calling me by my name?” He lifted his hand but kept it threateningly close, ignoring their bodies’ reaction to the struggle even though he was very, very aware of it.

Cloud smiled, “I’ll try to remember to,” he paused, “Sir.”

Sephiroth was close enough to see the hint of friendly teasing in the young man’s eyes. He drew back, “Are you mocking me, Cloud?”

“A, a little maybe,” The corporal looked away, suddenly worried that he’d hurt the General by not calling him by name, “but I don’t mean any disrespect by it. It’s just... I’m only a corporal.” Sephiroth growled at the apparent self-denigration. “I don’t mean that in a bad way, Sir, but... in order to minimize any scandal, and there will be one once they find out we’re a couple,” Cloud couldn’t stop the goofy smile that appeared when he heard his own words: he and General Sephiroth were a couple! “It’ll be worse if they hear me calling you by name in public, especially in a situation where you’re giving orders and being, y’know _THE_ General. So it’s best if I don’t get into the habit of calling you Sephiroth or, Gaia forbid, Seph!

“And it’s such a part of you, Sir,” he continued, “I mean... Can you see yourself as a carrot farmer or an office drone or, or... a hardware store manager? You’re General Sephiroth,” he paused, took a breath and looked his lover in the eyes, “and from what you said to Zack last night and this morning, you’re _my_ General now. I’m allowed to make fun of you a little.”

Sephiroth’s gaze narrowed as he examined Cloud’s words to see if they were sufficient explanation. “It’s protection.” Cloud nodded. “It’s your way of ‘claiming’ me.” Cloud nodded again. “And a private joke?” Cloud nodded, a shy smile playing on his lips.

Sephiroth knew couples did all those things to each other: protect, tease, and claim. It showed that Cloud had accepted their relationship. Therefore, Sephiroth would have to allow it; after all, he could always find other ways to force his name to pass those pretty lips. Those ways would include beds, toys perhaps, and hours to spend finding all of Cloud’s erogenous areas and exploiting them. But he couldn’t let his Corporal off completely....

“I will continue to request that you address me informally, Cloud, and I will punish you as I see fit when you disobey. Do you understand, Corporal?” His eyes were half-closed and glazed.

“Oh yes, I believe I do.” Cloud’s smile was equally as predatory. “Sir.”

“Bad boy,” the General purred and proceeded to punish the youth by biting, licking and scratching a sensuous trail all over his body. Sephiroth was careful, he had unusually sharp teeth after all, but Cloud didn’t protest the couple times he drew blood. Instead he hissed, and arched his back, moaning jaggedly when Sephiroth lapped up the red droplets with his tongue, so he bit a little harder, deliberately breaking the surface of that rosy skin. A strangled cry of excitement was his reward.

“Sir, please. Please, Sir,” the young man writhed, mind hazy, hands buried deep in the long silk that Sephiroth called hair. He was nibbling on Cloud’s stomach, so close to his achingly rigid flesh. So close, but Sephiroth wanted something else this time.

“I want to be inside you, Cloud.” In response, Cloud’s penis shuddered and his breath caught. Sephiroth smiled. Obviously, his little blond lover liked that idea, but then he frowned, thinking of sizes. His erection wasn’t small and he’d brought nothing with him to ease the way. He had to laugh, a soft, low chuckle that was precious for its rarity.

“Sir?” Cloud asked, bewildered by the sudden change in mood.

“Ah, Cloud. I may be _THE_ general, able to anticipate an enemy’s moves ten stages ahead but I have to admit I didn’t plan for this, Cloud. I didn’t plan for you.” The young man just frowned in confusion.

“I have no lubricant, Cloud, and I don’t think penetration is achievable without it,” he paused and considered his words, “Not without great pain on your part and that would be insupportable.”

Cloud brow lifted in enlightenment. “I may have something, Sir. Hold on,” he ordered and he twisted and crawled out from under the General and over to his pack. Sephiroth let his fingernails drag over the smooth skin of his back, over firm and shapely cheeks, and down strong, beautiful legs. He enjoyed Cloud’s quick shudder. Then the young blond was digging in the pack beside the bed, which caused all sorts of interesting movements and tantalizing glimpses. The silver haired SOLDIER looked up over that sturdy, young body and made a mental note to try certain positions at a later date. He stroked the surface of that body, digging in a little to raise pink welts, everywhere he could reach, which was almost – almost, to the intriguing crack that hid Cloud’s vulnerable opening.

“Ah ha!” Cloud shouted in triumph, his breathing a little short. “I knew I had some.” He twisted to hand Sephiroth a tube.

“Antibiotic ointment?” the General questioned.

“You put it on open wounds before bandaging, and it stays slick so that the bandage doesn’t stick. It should work.”

“So it should,” he purred in agreement, and he gripped Cloud’s ankle to drag him back where he belonged – under him. Hungry kisses while he opened the tube and covered his fingers and shaft. “Open for me, Cloud,” he murmured and his young lover obediently spread his legs.

Cloud was running restless hands down his own body, playing with his sensitive nipples and enjoying his own skin before continuing the movement up the surface of his lover’s body – _his lover! Sephiroth was_ his _lover._ That pale pearl skin was softer than just about anything. The blond grabbed some of that luscious hair and raised it to his face, inhaling the scent, bringing it deep inside him, then letting it fall to caress his body as the General moved, doing his own touching and stroking.

Sephiroth looked down at the riches displayed and he hummed in appreciation. Cloud’s erection was fat and flushed. His shaky breathing caused it to bounce lightly and there was a small puddle of pre-cum developing on his belly. The SOLDIER swirled that pearly liquid around on Cloud’s skin while he slid one finger into the blond’s opening, twisting and bending it slightly.

“Oh, god, Sir,” Cloud panted; unsure whether to press down or move away. He clenched his hands on the General, anywhere they landed. He needed contact. It was amazing and terrifying. He wanted more.

Sephiroth enjoyed Cloud’s reaction so much he rewarded it with a long nibble on his slim, sensitive neck. He added another finger, scissoring them, pushing the ointment in deeper while stretching the tight muscle. He would have loved to take more time but couldn’t. His usually impeccable sense of time was failing and he wasn’t sure if they had used only a quarter of an hour or three quarters.

With a growled question, answered with an enthusiastic affirmative, “Yes please. Now, Sir!” he eased his way in with little rocking motions. He kissed Cloud deeply, licking at the different textures of his mouth. He hummed, Cloud whimpered – it was wonderful.

Cloud was overwhelmed. The feeling was so, so huge and different, uncomfortable and remarkable. He wasn’t just with a _guy_ for the first time _;_ this was _General Sephiroth_ he wasmaking love with. The SOLDIER’s skin was fire, his scent was alcohol, and Cloud was burning. He pushed back onto the flesh impaling his body, gently because it did hurt a little, but it felt so good too, and then it felt even better than good. “Holy fuck,” he gasped, breath hitching, body clenching.

“That’s it, Cloud. That’s what I want.” Sephiroth had been seeking the little nub and now he massaged it with the sensitive tip of his erection. He changed the tempo and the pressure, pushing first lightly, then firmly, quickly then slow. He watched sweat start to bead on his young lover’s temple. He enjoyed the rosy flush on plump cheeks and lips. Those he nibbled on in appreciation, letting his inhumanly long eyelashes brush over them. He ran his hands over his heaving chest up to circle Cloud’s slim neck, enjoying the hard pumping in his lover’s veins.

“Unghhh,” the blond moaned over and over. He was writhing helplessly, a constant twisting motion. So deep, so deep. Scary, wonderful, weird, amazing. Invaded, filled... complete. Sephiroth was forced to sling Cloud’s legs over his arms so that he could hold the boy’s hips still. He didn’t want to hurt his young lover since he was a virgin to this.

Sephiroth had known from the first moments of penetration that he was the first man to be inside Cloud’s body. It had taken all his willpower not to drive himself in to the hilt in one fierce, possessive stroke, but he couldn’t stop the triumphant tension that ran through his body. It whispered, ‘mine, mine, _mine!_ ” with every movement and pushed him to the brink of orgasm far faster than he’d ever experienced before. He wasn’t sure if Cloud was as close.

“Touch yourself for me, Cloud,” he nipped at kiss-swollen lips, sucked at tender bite marks, and licked his hard little nipples, “I want to watch you.”

“Yes, Sir,” he breathed. A small, strong hand reached down to encircle his penis. It tightened and stroked, forcing more pearly liquid out which Cloud used to slick his hand. With one hand tight in Sephiroth’s hair and the other one moving firmly up and down his shaft, Cloud watched the General watching him jerk off. Those green eyes glittered through his lashes, glowing slightly in the dim room, flicking from groin to face and back down again.

Cloud started to catch and hold his breath as he had last night, and Sephiroth realized it was a signal of the young man’s impending orgasm. As was the spike in body temperature as his skin flushed. He adjusted his position so that he could hit the prostate more firmly, a move too painful for someone not on the edge. He wanted to feel Cloud’s body tighten on his, to pulse and clench in time with his body’s surrender.

“Oh muh god, Sir,” Cloud called out. He couldn’t keep his eyes open any longer. It was here, an explosion he’d felt before but nothing like he’d ever known. His whole body pounded and throbbed, and _burned_ with it. “Sir!” He brutally squeezed the hard flesh buried inside him, he couldn’t help it.

Sephiroth let himself go. There was nothing but physical sensation now. He could feel his muscles tensing and in pulsing waves. He could feel the liquid that spurted from him, filling Cloud and encasing his own penis in its heat. He heard Cloud’s little ‘oh’ of wonder at this new sensation and, for the first time, considered what it would be like to be the one filled. Maybe, one day, with his little Cloud, he would find out.

For now, he was content to enjoy the aftershocks, the ripples of pleasure that ran through their bodies. He released Cloud’s legs and allowed his torso to collapse to one side, breathing in the air left by the blond’s quick panting.

“Did you enjoy that, Cloud?” Cloud managed to nod. He still had his hand wrapped in long silver hair. His hand would squeeze and pull as spasms ran through him. Sephiroth decided he liked the sensation on his scalp. “We should probably clean up before Zack returns, don’t you think?”

Think?

Cloud made a noncommittal humming sound. He felt so relaxed, and the bed was so warm. It was nice to just lie here with his eyes closed, reliving the morning’s activities. _The General was his lover!_ He was smiling, even as he slid nearer and nearer to sleep.

Next thing he knew he was vertical and being carried, once again like a doll, into the bathroom. He was plunked on his feet in front of the sink. “Wake up, Corporal. Consider this reveille.”

Sephiroth didn’t think it would work, but it did. Cloud grabbed his toothbrush and began brushing away even though his eyes were still mostly closed so the SOLDIER herded him through the rest of morning preparations, Curing him to get rid of the bite marks, washing off the evidence of their activities, and keeping his ears open for sounds of Zack’s return. A short lived experiment reinforced the necessity of keeping in contact, and woke Cloud up fully. That, however, didn’t stop the larger man from carrying him around, after all he could move _much_ faster than the unenhanced corporal.

He whisked the blond back into the main room to dress. Separating pant legs and buckles from sleeves and straps. Cloud laughed because it was so ridiculous and wonderful. It was like being in a dream and he was content to just enjoy it as a dream but there was one moment when he looked and actually _saw_ his hand, small, pale and weak looking, resting against Sephiroth’s hard slabs of muscled chest. He swallowed, and looked up – way fucking up, into cat green eyes that looked down on him in gentle amusement.

“Sir,” he could hardly name his fears, “Is this… real?”

Sephiroth smiled down at his tentative young lover, a real smile not his usual half-quirk. “Yes, Cloud. This is very, very real.” He leaned down to place a tender kiss on his forehead.

Then they went back to sorting out their clothes.

They had barely managed to pull their pants on when feet clomped up the stairs. Cloud looked over at the pushed together beds, “Sir!” he pointed at them. Having them like that, so obviously slept in by all three of them at once, would give rise to the kind of gossip they desperately wanted to avoid. Now he was awake.

“Follow my lead,” was all the General had time to say since Zack was nearly at the door. He moved over to the entry and yanked open the door before the dark-haired First had a chance to reach for the handle. “You have coffee?” he demanded.

Zack, whose eyes had widened at seeing his General half-naked, narrowed his gaze at his CO, knowing immediately that something was up. Cloud eased around the large warrior and said to Zack, “It might be safer if l take your tray and you take Gruber Junior’s. He’s a little irritable.” A head jerk indicated the mass of muscled warrior behind him.

“Right,” the First agreed without fuss, and handed the tray over to the small soldier who staggered a little under the weight.

“You have the coffee,” Sephiroth declared and followed the blond as he lurched over to the table. Gruber Junior would probably think the General was standing so close to Cloud because he was deadly impatient to get his morning caffeine fix. It was a good cover, and damn near true. Caffeine didn’t affect SOLDIERs the way it did everyone else, but the Silver General got fucking cranky without it.

Zack turned to the innkeeper’s son, who was looking rather nervous, and took his tray, “Why don’t you go back downstairs now. We’ll bring all the dirty dishes down before we go,” and Zack, firmly but gently, shut the door in Gruber Junior’s face. He took a comprehensive glance around the room, noticing mussed blankets, scattered clothes and a tube of antiseptic ointment? That explained the faint medicinal smell but he wondered why they’d needed to use it. He examined Cloud for any damage and was relieved to find none.

Sephiroth and Cloud were sitting in the same positions as yesterday. They had the food served up and the coffee poured. “Hurry before it gets cold,” his young friend said already digging in.

“Built up an appetite did you Cloud?” Zack teased, sitting down and taking off his boots. Sure enough, his friends were back to playing footsie under the table. Cloud blushed and ducked his head, but Zack saw his smile as he glanced at his silver haired lover.

“Exercise is always good,” Sephiroth responded blandly, then redirected the conversation, “Any ideas on how to proceed?”

“We need a plan?” his Second in Command responded.

“Unlike others I could name, I have never charged an entrenched position with a strategy that consisted only of a yelled: ‘It’ll be a surprise!’”  
   
Zack grinned, unrepentant, “It worked.”

Cloud’s mouth was full of coffee and keeping liquids in the mouth while laughing is impossible. Since he didn’t want to spew it out over the table he wound up half swallowing-half breathing it in. Instead of laughing he was choking and coughing like an idiot.

“Unfortunately,” his commanding officer sighed. He looked at his blond trooper, his lover, who was hacking and gasping, “Will you be all right, Cloud? Do you need a Cure?”

Cloud waved it away, “Wrong spout,” he wheezed.

Sephiroth watched the red-faced young man trying to cough the liquid out of his lungs for a moment, assuring himself that medical intervention really wasn’t necessary. He turned to his SiC in disapproval. “I have only just found him, Commander Fair. I would be most distressed if you broke him before I’ve had a chance to get him home.”

It was the tone that did it for Zack. Seph’s humour was so dry and skewed that if you didn’t know what to listen for you’d miss it entirely. He got it – he always had, and it was his turn to laugh his food out of this mouth.

Cloud managed to rasp out a protest, “I’m not a toy.”

Sephiroth just smirked, eyes half closed. It was a look of content possessiveness and everyone at the table knew; Cloud may not be a toy but the General was the only one who got to play with him. As there was also fondness and respect, Cloud decided not to protest anymore. If he could tease the General then the General was allowed to tease him back. “Eat, Sir. We have a busy day ahead,” he ordered.

It didn’t talk long for the three of them to eat all of the food. They’d pile their plates up; swallow it all down, wait a few minutes then do it over again. It was a basic survival skill for times when meals could be interrupted by bullets. They still managed to talk about what had to be done that day.

“I thought about what Cloud said back in the labs,” Zack announced.

“About the forgeries?”

“Not that,” the young First waved those away, “About why you were sent here and not to Junon, or even kept in Midgar. I mean, no offense, but a couple of Thirds could’ve handled the monsters we’ve encountered.”

“Except for the dragon,” the General murmured. He’d enjoyed that fight. It had been a challenge even for him.

“Except the dragon,” Zack rolled his eyes but agreed. “You weren’t scheduled to come here. That’s what you said when you tagged me to come with you so, who changed your orders?”

“Heideggar informed me of the change; brought me the new orders.”

“Pffft. Heideggar hasn’t had an independent thought since he gave himself that medal.” Zack meant the Wutai Campaign medal that the fat ‘General’ had awarded himself for a campaign he’d been losing in a country he’d never set foot on. That would have been bad enough but he’d made the medal a Valorous Conduct with Cluster because it looked better on the green uniform with the overdone gold braiding. Cloud had heard the tale from outraged veterans, who’d been ready to revolt at the insult. President Shin-Ra hadn’t taken the bauble away, but he didn’t allow his Commander-in-Chief to wear it in public either.

“The President changed them,” Zack stated.

“But Junon has a reactor and that big project,” Cloud argued, “You’d think he’d want it protected.”

“Or himself.” Sephiroth was under no illusions about the man he served.

“So there should be a good reason. Since I know someone who might know something, I decided to make a call while you two were otherwise occupied.” He didn’t even wiggle his brows suggestively but just continued with his tale, “Turns out the President took someone’s advice about changing your orders.”

“Hojo or Scarlett,” Sephiroth said the names like they were poison; which, in a way, they were. Either of them would kill you slowly. The only difference between them was Hojo would watch and take notes and Scarlett would walk away and leave you writhing on the ground.

“Your source couldn’t be more specific?” The General touched a spot between his brows. Zack nodded slightly, confirming the guess.

“Maybe, but he won’t unless he can do it safely.”

“Hmmm,” Sephiroth, as much as he’d like to be certain, knew that it was unlikely. Tseng was a good Turk, but he was too high-profile within Shin-Ra to be able to slip away to make a confidential phone call. “There’s no point in him risking his life. We have enough to plan on.”

Cloud’s eyes had gone huge and his eating had slowed down to nothing. His face was even paler, as he listened to the two SOLDIERs. They were talking conspiracy, with people getting murdered for knowing too much. Those kind of plots only happened in the movies, not in real life – not to people he _knew._ “Are you in danger?” His voice was thready with fright but he thought that, given the circumstances, it was perfectly understandable.

“There is always danger, Cloud.” Sephiroth wouldn’t candy coat it. “The possibility of death in a war or against monsters is a SOLDIER’s reality. Death from internal politics shouldn’t be but often is. We will minimize the risk as much as possible although we could prepare more if we knew which was the threat.”

“They might be working together. They do that sometimes,” Zack explained to Cloud.

“Hmm,” Sephiroth hummed unhappily. It didn’t happen often, but yes, Hojo and Scarlett did sometimes cooperate on new weapons or fighters. “It is unlikely in this circumstance, however until we know more we will have to remain alert. We’ll proceed with our immediate objective: silence Jenova.”

“She’s still shouting at you.” It wasn’t a question. Zack already knew she was still out there, waiting for Sephiroth to be away from the village, away from Cloud.

“Yes. We experimented earlier.” At Zack’s nervous visual check of his wellbeing, Sephiroth expanded on his statement, “It was an accident to start with. She was quite faint although I heard her words relatively clearly.”

“It became louder and clearer the longer we were out of contact, so we stopped experimenting.”

“Why did you do it in the first place? Last time you two didn’t touch she froze Cloud in place and nearly took you over.” He was outraged that they would risk so much without him there as backup.

“We wanted to see if we could figure out either her plan or the reason why she’s here and not in Midgar with the Professor.” Plus it was easier going to the bathroom if they didn’t have to hang on to each other.

“I wrote down what the General heard but it was just nuts. Didn’t make any sense at all, really. Just vicious ranting about ruling the cosmos and getting revenge.” With a sigh the young First forgave them for being curious. After all, he would’ve done the same thing in their place. Places? Whatever.

“So no chance of negotiation, then,” he said.

Sephiroth’s lips quirked, “Not so much.”

“Destruction then. That’s always fun.” Zack grinned widely, “How do you want to do it?”

“We could blow up the reactor,” Cloud suggested. The older men looked at him in surprise. He blushed lightly, “Destruction, explosions, they kind of go together. Like in the movies.”

Sephiroth hummed in disapproval, “We’ll have to keep you away from the Turks. They’d like you too much.”

“We’ll keep that as a last resort, Spike, but it would be hard to justify the destruction of the whole reactor just to dispose of one body. Remember, we want to be able to go back to Midgar after this.”

“It would upset a lot of powerful people in Shin-Ra, Cloud. Not the best way to minimize dangers.”

“Like poking a hornet’s nest with a stick,” Zack murmured in illustration. “We could pitch her into the reactor core. The bottom is liquid mako, that should dissolve her.”

“Liquid mako isn’t acidic,” said the local boy, “People have fallen into the pools before, kids usually playing around, and they were okay – outwardly, at least. It’s not like their skin melted, or anything.” Cloud looked at the mix of congealed syrup, butter, bacon grease and little chunks of food. His stomach bubbled in rebellion and he pushed his plate away.

“Huh,” Zack grunted. “I always heard it was like acid in large quantities. I know the shots burn like fuck.”

Sephiroth couldn’t disagree, but it wasn’t important. “If the body doesn’t dissolve in mako then all we’d be doing is putting the problem off for another time. Someone else would have to deal with her. It may be ego but I doubt they’d be as prepared as we are.”

“Got a hero complex?” Zack didn’t wait for a response; it would just be an uppity comment about black pots and kettles anyway. “I’m sure Cloud would agree that nobody’s as good as you are, Seph, so strong, so big–”

The Corporal slapped a hand over his friend’s big mouth. “Focus, Zack. You’re not at the porn festival now.” He turned to the General. “If we break her, it... whatever she is, out of the mako, will she dissolve into the Lifestream?” It was a good question but neither of the SOLDIERs knew the answer.

“She has a strong personality. She may not break down as others do.”

“Plus, if she’s not human, the Lifestream might just spit her back out.” Zack gave his CO an apologetic look. “Then we’re back to having given the problem to someone else to deal with, whenever or wherever her body turns up.”

“I see,” Cloud responded. “I think we may be back to blowing it up.”

Sephiroth smiled at his little corporal’s destructive streak. “I have a Firaga but if she is indeed encased in mako, either solid or liquid, we’ll have to remove her from it somehow.”

“I vote for cutting her out,” Zack grinned evilly, “and maybe ‘up’ at the same time. Perhaps she’ll burn easier if she’s in little bits.”

“That sounds like a good plan. When you’re making a wood fire, the smaller pieces always catch faster and burn quicker,” Cloud agreed eagerly. “I wonder if the bits will explode. Wood that’s been soaked in mako for a while does.”

“That would be cool,” Zack enthused.

“The fire’s lots of different colours too – really bright!”

“I can see how you two became friends,” Sephiroth said with a sigh.


	9. Walking In the Air

* * *

They decided to walk to the reactor. They didn’t want Cloud developing motion sickness, a weakness he was notorious for in barracks. Also, Cloud knew a short path to it, the one he and Zack had used to return to Nibelheim after the attack by Genesis actually, but Zack had been too busy worrying about Cloud and Tifa, and Seph, to remember it. Driving the twisty dangerous road wouldn’t get them there any faster. It was easier than the path Tifa had used and there were no bridges so poor Hansin’s fate wouldn’t be repeated.

First, they had to get out of the village. It was later in the day than when he and Zack had gone to the mansion, so that meant more people would be awake and watching for something to happen that they could gossip about.

It was going to be Cloud. Again.

“Are you all right with this, Cloud?” The General asked again.

“Yes, Sir,” the corporal responded and somehow he was. He didn’t care what these villagers thought of him anymore. He didn’t want them to apologize to him for how wrong they’d been about him. He didn’t care if they never had to shake his hand to thank him for saving the world. Those dreams seemed rather silly and childish now. The General’s hand on his neck, Zack’s goofy, confident smile, _those_ were real. Those were important, although, there was _one_ person in Nibelheim whose opinion mattered.

“Sirs,” he asked hesitantly, “After this is over, would you like to meet my mother, both of you, I mean.”

Zack’s grin broadened, “Would I ever!” he enthused. He’d seen a picture of Cloud’s mom and she looked like a MILF.

“We’d be honoured, Cloud,” Sephiroth responded solemnly. He felt a flutter of what he thought could be nerves. He wasn’t sure. He knew most people considered it a major step in a relationship to meet each other’s parents and gain their approval. It was, perhaps, a remnant from the days when parents negotiated dowries for their children based on their assessment of the value of the prospective partner. Therefore, if he was indeed nervous, it was perfectly acceptable.

Cloud was blushing lightly and Sephiroth gave into impulse and brushed a soft kiss across a frosted cheek. “So very brave, Cloud,” he murmured. Cloud blushed even more deeply. He couldn’t stop himself from glancing at his friend to see his reaction. To his relief there was no disapproval or concern on Zack’s face, just genuine happiness for them both.

“C’mon, you two lovebirds: work first, play later. _HUP_ -to!”

The Inn’s common room was still mostly empty. The real test of Cloud’s resolve came when they walked across the village square. The matrons were lining up at the water tower to fill their buckets for laundry or cleaning or whatever, and to share the latest gossip. The old men were sitting outside at tables playing Go or Checkers and agreeing with each other at the sorry state of the world today.

It seemed all eyes locked on the trio at once. They saw the SOLDIERs, Zack swaggering and smiling, and Sephiroth contained and icy. Then they zeroed in on Cloud, looking short compared to the other two, and so very unimpressive. The force of all those gazes was like being hit in the face. Cloud couldn’t help it, he stopped dead, all the confidence he’d felt inside disappearing. In fact, he felt like he was separating from his body, looking down on them. It felt odd to look down on Zack and the General.

Zack saw what was happening and he shifted until he was beside his young friend. “Be proud, Spiky. You’re better’n all of them.”

“Breathe, Corporal,” General Sephiroth ordered and Cloud realized that he had indeed stopped breathing.

Then Cloud felt something really strange. It wasn’t materia but it was like that because, between the two SOLDIERs they erected a shield between the three of them and the locals. An invisible wall that deflected all the petty, spiteful thoughts they might throw at Cloud. It was weird, but cool. They would protect each other. They were a team and they needed him. It was enough to get his feet moving again. This time, when he walked through the village, he kept his head up, walking like a soldier not a delinquent.

He couldn’t wait to show them off to his Mom.

It didn’t take long to leave the small settlement behind. The pattern of bad jokes and weird insults that they’d developed in the mansion was continued. Sephiroth had declared himself early on as a neutral third party and the only mature one in the group. Then he’d spoiled it by castigating them both as unimaginative idiots who lacked basic language skills and had even less decorum. Zack’s unrepentant grin let Cloud know that having the General insult them was a good thing and the General was soon the target of comments ranging from innuendos arising from the length of his sword to what kind of hair conditioner he used.

Of course the closer to the reactor they got, the less relaxed the two SOLDIERs were. “She’s getting louder,” Zack announced, shifting back to Cloud to place his ungloved hand on the corporal’s bare arm.

“I feel a little more pressure. It’s not a significant increase though.”

“Cloud’s obviously not standing close enough then,” Zack teased, “Or maybe he just has too many clothes on.”

“Maybe I should take a heater to your brain, fungus head, dry out some of that mildew,” Cloud said.

Before Zack could respond suitably, Sephiroth asked, “Could Jenova be switching her focus to you, Zack?” He had switched his grip to Cloud’s hand as soon as they were out of sight of the last building and unsheathed Masamune, but they were relying on the dark-haired First for most of their physical defence. If Jenova were to attack him....

“Naw. I’m not picking up words or anything, just that annoying buzz.”

Cloud looked at his friend; there were lines of strain around his eyes and mouth. This was more wearing than he was letting on. The young corporal came to a decision. Like the other military men, he _liked_ having his weapon at the ready – even though he hadn’t used it once since they left Nibelheim and wasn’t likely to. Still, he was a soldier in a potentially dangerous situation. Training, and pride, demanded that he remain armed. However, protecting Zack was more important than his training or his pride. He slung his weapon strap over his head and slid it to hang down his back. Making himself virtually defenceless. “Take my hand, Zack.”

Zack laughed uncomfortably, “I don’t need–”

Cloud wiggled his fingers impatiently, “Take my hand, Zack, before that thing _does_ decide to target you.”

“It is a legitimate concern, Commander,” Sephiroth supported the corporal so Zack, with a slight blush under his dusky skin, took Cloud’s hand.

“It’ll be like playing Crack the Whip,” he commented, covering up any discomfiture with a joke. He’d forgotten his commanding officer’s unusual ‘childhood’.

“What is ‘Crack the Whip’?”

“Something Aerith should do to him more often,” Cloud muttered.

“Ooh ya,” Zack agreed, transported by the thought.

“It’s a children’s game, Sir.” Cloud proceeded to explain the simple activity, with a sidebar to explain ice-skating, to the General while Zack thought of how he could suggest whips to his naïve girlfriend.

He could just see her, in a pretty flowered dress, hair up in a ponytail, holding the black leather whip, looking at him with wide eyes, “You want me to do what with it?” Maybe if it were velvet, a nice rich girly colour, she’d at least hold it for him while he took pictures. As much as he’d like to try it, he figured the image would stay just in his imagination. At least thinking of it was a good way to block out thoughts of Psycho Alien Bitch and what they’d be facing at the reactor.

The teasing and the insults thinned as they got closer and Cloud worried that whatever innate ability he had to block Jenova’s voice out wouldn’t be enough to protect the two SOLDIERs. They were both of them, starting to get slightly pained looks on their faces and Sephiroth would occasionally tighten his grip on Cloud’s hand as if reacting to a sudden attack. He cast Barrier around the three of them, and it seemed to help for bit, but again, the closer they came to the reactor, the more vulnerable they were.

 

* * *

   
“You know, Seph, after listening to whatsername all this time, I now know where you got your parade ground voice. That bitch could break glass from a klick away.” It was a feeble joke. All it did was reveal to Cloud that his protections were failing.

“In the village, when everybody was staring, you two did something, it wasn’t a Barrier but it was like that. It made it seem like the people in the square were behind a wall.”

“What?” Zack asked, completely mystified.

“Hmm,” Sephiroth considered it for a moment. What _had_ they done? “It is something they practice in Wutai. I didn’t study it but I believe it’s called directing or managing chi?”

Zack, whose curiosity wouldn’t let him ignore any conversation occurring in his vicinity, said “Is _that_ what it is?” He turned to Cloud and jerked his thumb at his CO, “I picked it up from him. It’s great when we’re forced to listen to Heideggar for longer than a couple seconds.”

“It has proven useful in the past,” he agreed. Cloud just looked frustrated and the General realized the corporal wanted to adapt the technique to aid his innate ability to block Jenova. He wanted to protect them. He couldn’t help the softening he felt inside. Most people not in SOLDIER wanted to be protected _from_ him.

His little corporal really had the most luscious lips...

“Hey!” Zack waved his hand in front of the silver-haired man, “mission first; kissing later. Besides sexual energy might be transmittable through skin-to-skin contact and I have no intention of indulging in an all-male three way on the side of a Nibelheim mountain.”

“Does that mean you’d indulge if this were a 5-star hotel in Midgar?” Sephiroth asked and then smirked as his SiC’s jaw dropped in absolute shock. Sephiroth had never, _ever,_ made a joke containing sexual innuendo to Zack before. It almost sounded like an invitation.

“Aaaah,” _You’re not gay, Fair,_ he reminded himself _._ “Let me get back to you on that, sir.”

Sephiroth’s eyes glinted in triumph at having silenced his babbling friend. Cloud was trying to swallow his giggles. “Good one, Sir.” He looked up and was caught by those beautiful, green eyes. _Oh wow, look at those lashes._ He wanted to stroke his fingertips over them, or have them stroke over his skin – that would work too.

“Thank you, Corporal. Back to your question: from what I understand, it is a rejection of energies that are being directed towards you or a protection of your own energies. I was never certain of the translation.” He finished apologetically.

“That’s okay, Sir. I think I know what you mean.” He closed his eyes and thought back to the scene in Nibelheim, to that moment where he was looking down on them in the village square. The avid nosiness of the villagers seemed to him to be cold air, small minded and disapproving. The wall of spirit that the General and Zack had erected between them was like warm air, keeping all that cold energy away.

This is what Cloud pictured in his mind. Jenova’s voice was the cold air. His spirit was a warm breeze blowing a few steps ahead of them, keeping the chill away. Then he cast it, as if it were materia.

Both Sephiroth and Zack could sense his fierce determination and his protectiveness. It was endearing and a little odd because Cloud was the smallest, the youngest and physically he was the weakest of the three. That determination caused something to change. “Is that better, Sir?” He opened his eyes to look anxiously at the General. He was relieved to see the tension leave his face.

“Indeed, Cloud.”

Zack was more enthusiastic, “ _Fuck_ , yeah! She’s back to being an annoying buzz. Shit, I can’t believe that worked.”

“It is most impressive,” Sephiroth leaned closer, Cloud stretched up unable to resist the lure of that quirky smile.

Zack pulled them apart. “Hey, no distracting our defence with your uncontrollable lust or I’ll have to tell the guys how your discipline broke down at the sight of big, blues eyes. On a mission, no less. You’ll find blue-eyed plushies and dolls everywhere you look for _years._ ”

Sephiroth looked at the young First in displeasure. However, he did have a valid point. “Later,” he murmured and gave Cloud a brief peck.

The blond trooper gave a wide, happy smile, “Yes, Sir.”

The trio proceeded along the path. Zack had recovered his voice, “You know what you remind me of, Spike? A little kid walking between his parents. Maybe Seph and I can swing you or something.”

“I think the General will manage to swing you into bed before I’ll let you try,” Cloud responded.

“Awww, my little Spikey made a sex joke. He’s all growed up now.”

“One of us has to attempt it. I figure I have the best chance of succeeding.”

They ignored the smooth baritone that commented, “You both fail.”

* * *

  


The path, never easy, hadn’t been well maintained. The mayor had better things to spend his money on – like his daughter. It soon became obvious that Cloud needed to concentrate more and more on maintaining the barrier, wall, whatever it was that he was projecting. It was a good thing monsters were very rare in the dead zones surrounding mako reactors as neither Sephiroth nor Zack wanted to risk jostling the young man. They could feel Jenova battering at Cloud’s protection, demanding that they listen – even Zack could make out the words now but Cloud had been right this morning. It was just repetitive rants that didn’t make any sense, except, y’know, destroy everything.

Cloud was essentially walking with his eyes closed; not the smartest thing to do in the treacherous Nibel Mountains but better than Jenova getting through to one of the SOLDIERs. He could tell Jenova was hitting them hard, trying to break through the protection Cloud had manifested. Their hands would flex and tighten almost to the point of pain. Cloud would blow a gust of warm air out to surround whoever was under attack but it was happening more and more frequently.

Unfortunately, the image he had used earlier had grown and taken on detail and a reality of its own. Jenova was now a storm. Her hatred was a cold wind that pulled at their clothing and raised goose bumps on imaginary flesh. Her words were like rain soaking everything even though he’d dressed them all in imaginary rain capes. If she got any stronger, it would turn into hail, or snow which would be disastrous. His warm breeze was barely stopping her now. He couldn’t picture himself holding umbrellas or blankets, and he already felt so _cold_ , although he knew he wasn’t. If her words _did_ turn into snow then he needed something more solid than a ‘warm breeze’ and plastic capes to use as shelter.

He _was not_ going to let her have either of them!

“You never know when you and your friends will need shelter from the storms.” 

It was his father’s voice from that weird dream he’d had this morning. He’d been describing that funny cottage that he’d decorated. The one that had stone walls, stout doors and window coverings, a fireplace and blankets… everything needed to survive a mountain storm. _Shit._ He hated weird stuff, but if it would work then he’d do it. He just needed to get Zack and the General there.

He imagined them in his mind, what he saw as the core of them; their positions, their abilities, their looks and their personalities. Their uniforms, which were such an integral part of them that Cloud couldn’t imagine them in anything else, even though he’d seen each of them in more or, in the General’s case, less. _Focus_ , he reminded himself.

Once he had the image of them in his mind, he led them to his out-of-place cottage. _Open the door, Zack_ , he ordered his friend’s essence. To his surprise, the image obeyed him, the door opened and in they walked.

* * *

  


A cheery fire was burning in the fireplace. The apple wood added a hint of spice to the air, which was complemented by clove-oranges hanging from the ceiling. A stew was cooking on the wood stove in the corner and there was fresh bread cooling on the counter. The tired SOLDIERs breathed deeply and relaxed. Steam wafted from their wet clothing as the heat already went to work drying it. 

“Welcome to my home,” Cloud said. He closed and barred the door, and the frame disappeared into the stone wall as if it had never been.

There were pictures on an overfull bookcase; Cloud and Zack goofing off on the training field, Cloud and what looked like his parents, The three of them at the Inn this morning, joking and playing footsie at the table, and one tucked in the corner in a precious heirloom frame of the Cloud and Sephiroth hugging each other close. There was a large bed along one wall, big enough for three. Propped up on the pillows, sitting proudly in the middle of all that space, was a beat-up stuffed dragon, obviously well hugged over many, many years.

“This is fantastic, Spike!” Zack spun looking at the hangings on the wall; a patchwork quilt small enough for a child, an intricately woven scene of a bountiful forest, a beautiful embroidered panel depicting the Wutaian god. He laughed out loud at the image, “Look, Seph. Cloud’s got a self portrait.” Cloud blushed and Zack strolled over to give him a hug. “It’s perfect, Spike. Good choice.”

Sephiroth hadn’t let go of his lover’s hand. His perusal was, therefore, a visual rather than tactile one, but he knew what he was seeing – the most intimate parts of the Corporal’s heart and mind. His eyes lingered on the photo of the two of them. “It is an honour to be here, Cloud.”

“Thank you, Sir. We should be safe here.”

”I’m sure we will.”

* * *

  


“Do you smell stew, Seph?”

The General smelled the air but detected nothing. Nothing that made sense, at least, yet for just a minute, he thought he’d smelled... he’d detected the faint aroma of _cloves_. Perhaps it was a new manifestation of Jenova, but it didn’t have the same ‘feel’ that her voice carried so he dismissed the fear as having no basis. One change he was certain of, though, he was feeling decidedly warmer now than he had been even a minute ago. Yet there was no apparent reason for the deviation.

“And is it just me, or did the temperature just go up ten degrees?”

Zack’s casual words sparked a theory. “Can you detect Jenova’s voice at all?” the General asked his fellow SOLDIER. He was unsurprised when Zack shook his head.

Sephiroth looked at Corporal Strife, his lover, nearly sleepwalking between them. His face was peaceful; a slight smile on his lips and his eyes mere slits hiding that brilliant blue. He raised a wrist to touch the young man’s forehead and confirmed that Cloud’s body temperature was raised. Somehow, the trooper had combined his innate blocking ability with the barrier theory they’d discussed, and maybe some materia theory as well, and done something completely unexpected with it.

He wasn’t sure where his lover had gone, but Cloud had better be able to come back from it. The thought of losing another person he loved, it was… unacceptable.


	10. Yell Fire!

* * *

They were at the foot of the stairs to the reactor entrance. It had been both a lot quicker than Zack had anticipated and a lot longer.

Worry for his young friend had caused an odd extension in his time sense, as if each second in real time equalled five or more in worry. Cloud was essentially a zombie between them. He walked and he responded to direct remarks but his responses were often weird and had little or no connection to what he’d been asked. The first time he’d done that, Sephiroth had shaken him a little, to try and get a coherent response. The temperature had dropped and Jenova’s screechy voice had climbed to ear-popping levels.

They hadn’t done that again. Whatever the young soldier was doing to keep Jenova out of their skulls was working so Sephiroth and Zack very carefully fought off a couple bird things and avoided a bomb or two. They’d shielded their young friend with their bodies rather than have him disturbed.

“Are you warm enough?” Cloud asked.

It was the only thing he said voluntarily and he asked it a lot. Luckily, they were able to answer positively because neither of them knew how he would react to a negative answer. The young blond’s own body temperature was worryingly high and both the SOLDIERs knew that he was somehow using that heat to combat Psycho Alien Bitch. Sephiroth worried what prolonged exposure to fever-like heat would do to Cloud so he would pick his lover up and _run_ with him when it was safe.

That was the quick part of the journey and Zack knew the Silver General had _slowed down_ so that his SiC could keep pace.

He’d suggested once; that Seph just leave him, take Cloud to the reactor and get rid of Jenova. “Not a chance,” was the General’s flat reply. He’d just rolled himself around his lover, hooking the boy’s right arm over his shoulder so that Zack could maintain his grip and still face in the right direction. It was awkward and uncomfortable and freaking _dangerous_. Forget monsters, coordinating their legs was a feat worthy of Zack’s Advanced Manoeuvres class.

He’d hated that class as a cadet; marching in squares that shift into lines, then into boxes. _Boring!_ Now it had probably saved his life.

He also hated irony, as he’d petulantly informed his CO.

Finally, they were here. There were a lot of steps to climb and Zack was not going to risk tripping over Sephiroth’s heels and causing them all to crash to the bottom.

“Hey, Spike. Can you climb the stairs on your own?” he asked his flaked out friend.

“Of course I have slippers you can use,” Cloud replied lightly.

Sephiroth just raised an eyebrow dubiously. The corporal’s response wasn’t encouraging him to believe this would work.

“We’ll try one step. If he doesn’t raise his foot you can pick him up and carry him,” Zack promised, and Sephiroth reluctantly agreed. They took a cautious step toward the stairs and Cloud followed easily. The reached the base of the stair with no incident. A concerned look, a reassuring nod, and the two SOLDIERs stepped onto the first stair. Cloud smoothly echoed them. Another stair. Cloud stepped up with no hesitation. Zack let out a sigh of relief.

They established a rhythm, nothing too fast, just an easy pace, step-stair, step-stair, and aside from an odd comment about getting closer to the fire, Cloud acted as if they were walking over Midgar’s paved streets. He even stopped at the exact same moment they did once they reached the top. Zack keyed in the entry code and the massive security door swung slowly open. A quick, anxious glance into the sky above the reactor, just in case Genesis was still hanging around waiting to be an asshole again, then they were in. This time, when the door clanged shut, Zack made sure to engage the locking code. Hopefully that would keep out red-haired psycho former Firsts.

“Can you detect the smell of mothballs, Zack?” Sephiroth asked very hesitantly. They had both been subject to this odd sensory input: stew, wet cloth, apples, and cloves. Zack swore at one point he could smell toasting bread and melting cheese, and now mothballs.

Zack sniffed but couldn’t smell anything but stale industrial air and mako. It was colder here than outside though and he was sure he could hear the pseudo-Mommy from hell yelling at them. “No smells but... are you cold, a little?” he didn’t want to ask it. He didn’t want his feeling confirmed. They hadn’t been cold since Cloud had gone all zombie-fied on them.  
   
“I am feeling a little more chilled than before. However, that’s to be expected. The reactor isn’t heated.”

If only Zack could believe that was the cause of their chill, but he really, really didn’t think the cold came from the building. He cast a troubled glance at his friend, their protector. Cloud’s hair was stuck to his face with sweat; the collar of his uniform was dark with it. His cheeks were brightly rosy, as if he were standing too close to a fire. He sheathed his sword and raised his canteen to dry lips, tipping it carefully so that he didn’t pour too much in and drown the little guy. Like the other times he’d done this, Cloud swallowed the liquid down easily, as if he were holding the drink to his own lips; no hesitation, no choking, no awkwardness. It wasn’t natural, but it was a fucking good thing, was all Zack could think.

He looked up the long flight of stairs leading to Jenova’s chamber. The end was nearly in sight. “Let’s get this done.”

“Let’s hope it’s a surprise,” Sephiroth commented dryly, only half joking.

 

* * *

  
The wind was howling outside, slamming the shutters against the walls. The roof beams groaned and the flames in the fireplace flared unpredictably. Blankets had been pushed up against the vulnerable window and braced there. In fact, he’d pulled blankets after blanket out of a storage chest, far more than it could logically hold, so now hangings covered nearly every outside surface adding one more layer of insulation to the building.

It wasn’t enough.

Cloud had pulled out a couple braziers and had filled them with charcoal. A flick of thought and Sephiroth’s Firaga took them from cold lumps to slow burning warmth almost immediately. Cloud had them huddling on the couch in front of the fire sharing blankets. He had somehow entwined himself around and over the two SOLDIERs, hugging them close, _willing_ them warm.

He wouldn’t let her have them.

 

* * *

  
The two SOLDIERS made their cat-like way up the metal stairs. Despite their size, the only sound was the light tread of their oddly absent companion. Their senses were straining, reaching out, looking for danger. They were very aware that they had their backs to the facility’s entrance. Sephiroth would turn occasionally and search the space visually. His genetically manipulated reflexes allowed him to walk backwards up stairs while holding hands more easily than Zack’s merely enhanced ones.

The ringing of his PHS broke the silence and, although he wasn’t ashamed of it he would never, _ever_ admit that he jumped – just a little. Problem was, Cloud jumped too. The force of Jenova’s voice dropped the younger First to his knee. Sephiroth staggered and clutched his head.

“Answer it,” Sephiroth commanded as it rang again.

Zack already had it out checking the display. The number made him frown a little in surprise. He put it up to his ear, “Aerith?” His voice, he was proud to note, sounded only a little strained. Sephiroth was murmuring to their friend, reassuring him of their safety. A wave of heat radiated out from their comatose friend. Jenova’s assault faded to the background again.

“He did? Okay. Yeah… Nope, I understand,” he nodded his head, “Cookies are okay but _no_ pie, alright? We’ll never get rid of him if you feed him pie. Nah, no worries… It’s always great to hear your voice. Love ya too, doll.”

Cloud obviously didn’t mind their voices, unlike his negative reaction to the electronic ringing of Zack’s PHS. At least, he assumed it was their voices that had reassured Cloud. It hadn’t taken the little blond marvel long to rebuild whatever it was he was using to protect them. Jenova was back to being an irritating little buzz in the back of his mind, a faint pressure on his skin. Both were easy to ignore but, after taking a good look at his friend while they put him back on his feet, the effect this was having on Cloud wasn’t quite so easy to shove to the back of his mind.

The corporal now had visible drops of sweat running from temple to chin. His colour was okay, a little red – nothing more than deep blush, but he was breathing too fast, his pulse was speeding up and they didn’t even need to touch him to feel the heat flowing from him. It was almost like hyperthermia, but not quite. He decided to give him more liquids. As long as he was sweating, he was still, hopefully, going to be all right. Cloud drank down the electrolyte-laced stuff without flinching or slopping, which was good, but still weird since he definitely wasn’t _here_.

Zack updated his CO on his phone conversation as he fed most of his remaining drink to their little protector. “Tseng just paid a visit to Aerith – for cookies, apparently.” A raised eyebrow was the General’s only comment, “That’s what I thought. During their little chat he made sure to tell her that she wouldn’t be seeing any of the Turks around because Hojo had left on a month long vacation soon after we were sent to Nibelheim.”

“A vacation,” disbelief dripped from Sephiroth’s voice.

“Hmm,” Zack agreed. “She also said that he suggested that she call me and let me know as I would probably be reassured by the news.” Zack would be reassured, as it was Hojo was behind the Turks watching the world’s last Cetra. They’d never been ordered to retrieve her… yet, and some of Tseng’s comments led Zack to believe they wouldn’t try very hard if they _were_ ordered, but it was still nice to know that she was safe. Even if they weren’t.

”Clever.”

“Yup. He’s a sneaky bastard,” Zack smiled, “Thank Gaia.” The smile dropped away. “Still. Hojo.” An attack by the creepy doctor could take any shape. It just depended on what purpose Hojo thought it would serve. They’d have to be even _more_ alert, if that was even possible.

Sephiroth sniffed the air, seeking traces of the Professor’s slight medicinal smell overlaid with old sweat as the man often forgot to bathe when pursuing one of his theories. There was no taint but unfortunately, that was hardly sufficient proof of the scientist’s absence. “I detect nothing,” he reported.

“Then let’s get on with this – Cloud’s not looking so good.” Cloud wasn’t just hot and sweaty, he was panting - short little, gasps, as if he were fighting for his life. _Shit._ Zack had enough experience in the field to know what damage could be caused by prolonged fever heat; dehydration was only the start of it. He did _not_ want his friend killing himself to save them.

 

* * *

  
She was winning. 

They’d been doing so well too, then suddenly the shutters had blown off the outside of the cottage. Now ice was creeping in around the window frames and they could almost see their breath in the cold air. Cloud couldn’t add another fireplace, it was too late for that, but he had fired up his mother’s wood stove and hung more blankets on the walls. He had them all sitting on piled up rugs in front of the fire covered with _even more_ blankets.

It wasn’t enough.

The only other thing he could think of to keep warm was to be active but no way was he going to give up the warmth of the blankets. He could think of one activity that took place under blankets.

“We need to have sex,” he announced driven by his need to protect his friends into being ruthlessly blunt.

“Is that an order, Corporal?” Sephiroth teased dryly even as Zack rocked away, “Woah!”

The sitting room layout shifted so that, instead of huddling tightly under a mound of heavy coverings, they were nestled under a large tent made of blankets draped over furniture. He made sure there was light shining through the material adding a soft, intimate feel to it. He also made sure the blankets were hooked to the mantel so that they could access the fireplace’s heat; after all, they had a larger area to warm up now. “I’m serious. We need to be generating more body heat. So it’s dancing or sex.”

“I vote for the intercourse.” Who knew that that silky baritone could be so gently mocking?

“Sex jokes… from you. Aren’t you supposed to be too dignified for that?” Zack said. Cloud recognized the comment for what it was: a delaying tactic, an attempt to deflect the conversation into a path less uncomfortable for the dark-haired First.

“Strip, Zack!” Cloud suited words to action and undid straps and zippers, tossing the unwanted clothes onto the couch. Sephiroth followed easily. Only Zack made no move to get naked with them.

“Guys…” he protested, face red enough to hurt, “this really isn’t my thing.”

“It doesn’t matter for this, Zack. I promise you.” Cloud moved closer, grabbing his leg and holding it hard. He had to make his friend understand. “This place, my home, it’s a step outside of reality. When you leave, you’ll still be you; completely hetero and so, so lucky to have a girl like Aerith waiting for you, but right now, we need to be more than warm and this is all I can think of.”

“I dunno.” He was starting to get jittery. It didn’t help when a completely nude Sephiroth crawled over to sit on the other side of him. His eyes jumped from large blue orbs to cat green slits, “It just seems really weird.”

“Consider it an order, Commander, if that helps.” Sephiroth slid long fingers up to his SiC’s harness and undid it. “This is surely more pleasant than reporting to Hojo in the medical lab.”

“Well, yeah, probably.” He broke off, yelping, as Cloud’s smaller hands went to work on his pants. “Fuck.”

“That _is_ the idea – eventually.” The General was sliding his spread hands up over Zack’s chest forcing the shirt up as he caressed. He stopped when he reached the younger man’s shoulders and waited for him to make his decision.

Zack was caught. He wasn’t gay, he was absolutely certain of that, but this was _Sephiroth_ pulling his shirt up. What if he found out that his Second-in-Command had a secret crush on him and had for a long time? What if Aerith found out he liked guys – rather one _specific_ guy, would she be able to deal with that? If he’d been involved with any other girl he’d probably jump at the chance to, well, jump Seph’s bone, but it was Aerith and she was somehow different. Cloud was right though, it was colder.

“Fuck,” Zack repeated, “I don’t care if this isn’t ‘really real’. Not one fucking word of this gets said to Aerith. You got it?” His companions agreed readily; Sephiroth because it wouldn’t occur to him to discuss this with her and Cloud because he would do anything to get Zack participating. Besides, the blond corporal understood loyalty.

Sephiroth, never one to be shy, started his seduction right away, licking his way up Zack’s chest and over nipples, and along the defined ridge of bone and muscle that made up his SiC’s shoulder. Cloud who’d been attacking the belts and zippers of Zack’s pants, heard Zack catch his breath and saw him close his eyes in response to the General’s playing. He remembered what it had felt like to be under assault by this man. The magic they’d created between them.

He decided the General had the right idea and changed his tactics from necessary speed to leisurely enjoyment. He slid his hands under Zack’s hips, circling his fingers over taut flesh before dragging the rough cloth down, down. He pushed them down to long feet. He was grateful that they’d removed their combat boots ages ago, replacing them with warmer, and easier to remove, slippers. He never let his hands lose contact with Zack’s skin until he had to grab the pant bottoms to pull them all the way off.

He looked up in time to see the General, his lover, very slowly, very deliberately, lick the large vein pulsing in his best friend’s neck then move in with teeth to pull it into those thin, sculpted lips. Zack’s face was slack, his mouth open in surprised pleasure. ‘Did I look like that?’ Cloud wondered. He watched long pale fingers rub down Zack’s darker skin and it was beautiful.

Inspired, he used his teeth and his strong fingers to nip and massage, to scratch and sooth, all along the sensitive tendons of Zack’s feet and ankles, up the long lean muscles of his calves. He smelled different from Sephiroth, more like rich loam than exotic spice, but they both had the same underlying scent. Cloud figured it was something to do with being SOLDIERs. It was a reassuring scent, familiar yet sexy.

“You taste good, Zack,” he said, “and you feel good.”

He looked up the long length of his best friend. His gaze caught on Zack’s growing erection. It was dark, like his skin tone, but still pale against the black curly hair framing it. Just then Zack let out a helpless moan – Sephiroth had found and was playing with, the sensitive spot where neck met shoulder and the nerves spread out. He was lying alongside Zack’s body, pearl against teak, rubbing ever so slightly against the young First’s hipbone. Zack gulped for air and his penis swelled and stood a little away from his belly.

Cloud watched enthralled. He wanted to taste it. It was smaller than the General’s; he should be able to take that into his mouth. He wanted to know what it was like. _Fuck,_ did he want to try that. His own penis was growing; he could feel himself panting for breath as the eroticism of this situation finally, truly, struck him.

This was _waayy_ fucking better than Tobbin’s porn movies!

He crawled up Zack’s body, carefully straddling both his leg and Sephiroth’s, enjoying the difference in texture and colour – so pretty. He reached a good spot and lowered his hips to rest on heated skin, pressing slightly because it felt so good against his own swollen penis.

“Shit,” Zack moaned as Cloud breathed on his erection, which grew a little more with each puff of warm air. “Cloud,” he protested despairingly, knowing the blond wouldn’t stop and that he would enjoy it despite everything.

“It’s alright, Zack. Pretend I’m Aerith, if that helps.”

“Yeah, right. Neither one of you feel anything like her.”

“I’d rather you knew who was touching you, stroking you, kissing you.” Sephiroth was moving down the younger SOLDIERs body as he spoke, forcing Cloud to move over until he was straddling Zack’s far side and they were face to face over their friend’s fat cock. Sephiroth smiled at him, “I’ll show you how it’s done, Cloud. Later you can practice on me.”

Cloud inhaled sharply, his arousal spiking dramatically. “I’d like that, Sir,” he managed to gasp out.

“Oh fuck. I’m toast,” Zack whispered.

 

* * *

  
The trio reached the top of the chamber without incident. The door into Jenova’s chamber was, unsurprisingly, locked. The Universal Code, that was supposed to open any door in any remote Shin-Ra facility, also unsurprisingly, didn’t work.

“Finesse or brute strength?”

“Cut it open,” the General ordered, unwilling to wait the length of time it would take the First to pick the sophisticated lock. He was anticipating the end of this: his skin was tight, his respiration was up.

Zack only had one hand to use for his swing instead of his normal two. He shook it out, and bounced on his heels a little – he was feeling tingly and his muscles were tight. Battle adrenaline did that to him, he knew, but this was more intense than normal. He shifted to a position that would allow angle and momentum to help him slice through the metal hinges. A hard kick knocked the heavy door back into the chamber.

Cloud shuddered at the noise. The two SOLDIERs buckled at the strength of Jenova’s attack.

“Talk to him,” Zack ordered and followed his own command, saying how good he was doing and how proud he was of his young friend. Sephiroth did one better, laying a gentle kiss on flushed lips.

Cloud moaned and heat poured out of him, once again forcing Jenova to retreat.

It was a distinctive kind of moan. One both of the blond’s companions had heard before – although only one had been invited to hear it. Zack drew back. “Is that... what I think it is?”

“If you think it sounded like he is in the midst of a sexual experience, then I’d have to say yes,” Sephiroth answered.

“Suddenly I’m _way_ more curious about what’s going on in that blond head of his than what Hojo’s got planned.” Sephiroth, eyes slit in speculation, could only agree. What _was_ going on in his little lover’s head?


	11. Burnin' Down the House

* * *

The house groaned. The sound was loud enough to startle them all out of the sensuous spell that had been woven. 

“I can’t do this,” Zack declared before scurrying backwards. At least he tried to scurry. Sephiroth reached out one strong arm and caught his shoulder. Cloud, already half way there, latched on to his thick cock. Either movement was enough to freeze the dark-haired man in place.

“Just close your eyes and think of Gongaga, if that helps.”

“Not funny, General, sir.” Zack would have thwapped him for that comment except that it was, you know, General Sephiroth. “I know I teased you about it, but it was just, y’know, teasing – a joke. I didn’t mean it.”

“Trust us, Zack. We want you to enjoy it.” Cloud knew the statement applied to both of them: himself and the General. They were both complete sensualists, revelling in the physical and able to enjoy the experience for exactly what it was – an incident out of time, never to be repeated. He also guessed, that Zack’s statement about being toast was completely accurate. Cloud and Sephiroth were determined to make the black-haired first burn.

With one on each side of the young SOLDIERs erection they reached out at almost the same instant and started to lick, exploring Zack’s flavour. Zack stilled, breathing hard in a combination of distress and arousal. He couldn’t relax completely, so he stayed propped up on his elbows but that just gave him a better view of what Cloud and Sephiroth were doing. It was unexpectedly arousing to be used as an instructional tool, he discovered. He also discovered that his CO had no gag reflex. Faced with the sight of his cock disappearing between those fine, sculpted lips, Zack’s resistance eroded. Watching baby faced Cloud mimic the General, feeling it, completely wiped it away. They dragged him back under their spell.

It was Cloud who pulled that wondrous silver hair to cover all of them, enjoying the feel and the smell of it. It was Cloud who buried his nose into Zack’s scent-rich groin. He stroked with light fingertips over pubic hair, hipbones, sac and penis – all over the sensitive area, going back to compare textures until he must have had them memorised. Never had Zack felt so... appreciated for just being male.

Sephiroth concentrated on playing with his friend’s erection, lips and teeth and tongue running along the big vein and just under the ridge before he took it all in; over and over again. The General kept one hand circling Zack’s engorged penis, bracing it and denying him orgasm all in one, while the other hand petted over chest and stomach, stopping to scratch at pert nipples. The sensations were never enough of anything to shoot the First over the top, only enough to torture him.

As much as he enjoyed his task, Sephiroth also kept an eye on, and enjoyed watching, Cloud’s exploration. It was obvious the little mountain boy was made for sex. He appreciated how lucky he’d been to attract the corporal’s attention. When they got back to Midgar, he vowed that they would spend hours and days and years, appreciating each other. Like Zack, Cloud wasn’t intimidated by him and that was a rare find indeed.

Sephiroth moved up Zack’s long body. He wrapped arms around to hold him close. He cradled lovely cheeks in long finger so he could kiss him deeply. He tried to show with his body the love he held for his ever-cheerful SiC. His joy of life would balance both his and Cloud’s darker view and he wouldn’t give him up, no matter who had a claim on his heart in the real world.

Sephiroth knew Zack loved him and enjoyed his company. He knew that, but the SOLDIER had never seriously wanted to bed him. He’d been attracted, as all the Firsts were, but it had been against his will and his nature, and Sephiroth refused to take advantage of what was, essentially, a chemical reaction. This was his chance to show his friend how much he’d always wanted to take him up on his offer.

It was sensory overload for Zack even though he’d been in threesomes before. Maybe it was the fact that it was two guys instead of the twins he used to play with, but this felt different, more powerful, more revealing, just more. He writhed and moaned, and jerked uncontrollably. It was fucking scary and if they stopped, he’d probably kill something.

Inside their little tent it was passion and heat. Hot enough that they didn’t notice the ice, centimetres deep now around the windows, crawling across the floor toward them.

 

* * *

  
Beyond the door, a multitude of pipes ran to, or was it from, a shielded tank elevated above the platform floor. They climbed up the massive central pipe strung out in a line because it was too narrow for them to walk abreast.

The container that Jenova was housed in held no resemblance to the plain tubes used in the rest of the facility. Instead, it was like a statue. A beautiful face, serene and cold, gazed over the area. Its spread arms turned into wings made of tubing that led to pumps and monitors and probably dozens of other things. Represented like this, she was a remote goddess, intending neither aid nor harm to those she looked down upon.

Both the SOLDIERs knew it was a lie. They’d felt her rage, heard her hatred, and Zack couldn’t help but wonder, who’d built the shrine? Who believed the lie?

Jenova’s reality lay beyond the pretty front and another locked door.

“This time when you chop it open, try not to let it drop so loudly. I’ll brace Cloud” Sephiroth couldn’t help but notice how well the First Class uniform outlined the muscles of Zack’s torso and made his shoulders seem so broad and his hips so slim. The younger First had been right, back in the lab, when he’d asked how women could resist him in uniform. Sephiroth usually resisted thinking about Zack ‘that way’ knowing that his SiC had no interest in experimenting and he wondered why he was thinking of this now. Of course, the panting, moaning blond walking beside him might have something to do with his every thought taking on a sexual overtone.

“See if you can cover his ears,” Zack suggested and watched, astounded as Sephiroth sheathed Masamune in order to protect the blond’s trance. That last attack by Psycho Bitch Mom must have hit the General hard. Zack also sheathed his Buster but only long enough to adjust his position so that he could touch Cloud and attack the covering at the same time.

The dark-haired First sheared off the hinges. He then slung his sword but there wasn’t much he could do one-handed. “Shit,” he muttered, trying to get a grip without knocking the heavy door

“Take Cloud’s hand again,” Sephiroth ordered, seeing the problem. They shifted and, with each of them using only one hand, lifted the cover and tossed it over the side to fall and fall until it hit something. By that point, they didn’t care. Jenova’s true face was revealed.

She wasn’t ugly, not physically at least, and the body shape was the same one common to humans on Gaia: two legs, two arms, a torso, and a head. The shape of her face, her slender frame, the distinctively coloured hair; they were all echoed in the General. Faced with that evidence there was no denying a genetic legacy. However, Sephiroth did not have bright pink, glowing eyes or fangs for teeth. He was also missing the leathery protrusions that took the place of arms and hands and Zack didn’t think he had paws and claws for feet.

“I think you got all her best features, Seph. Lucky you.”

“Hmm,” the General hummed noncommittally. Seeing her, it, like this was disturbing on many levels. She was alien but not, evil but beautiful, powerful but piteous. He was drawn to her. Physically it was as if she was pulling him toward her. Every cell in her body called to every cell in his, promising a union of unbelievable rightness.

“We must hurry, Zack. She’s much more powerful here.”

“Right,” He didn’t say anything more. Zack could see the strain his CO was under. He peered into the chamber containing the supposed-to-be-dead thing that was trying to drive his boss crazy. “This looks like liquid mako, Seph. Cloud’s test didn’t go so well.”

“High resistance?” Sephiroth asked in a tone that expected the opposite answer, which is what he got.

“Too susceptible.”

Mako was an odd substance. It was the source of enormous power, as evidenced by Shin-Ra’s rise to global pre-eminence. It could boost a human’s physical abilities beyond the dreams of comic book authors. When compressed it formed into materia giving anyone with enough will the power of the gods. It could do absolutely nothing physically or mentally, or it could snatch a person’s mind away so that all that was left was a drooling thing; unable to perform the simplest action without help.

“You open it, I’ll lift Cloud,” Sephiroth said.

“Okay. On three.”

“One,” they adjusted their positions.

“Two,” Zack lifted his sword; Seph wrapped his arms around Cloud.

“Three...”

 

* * *

  
Cloud felt himself picked up. Sephiroth was lifting him, positioning him between Zack’s legs. “On your knees, Cloud,” the General ordered gently. Cloud’s breath hitched. He had a good idea what was going to happen and he couldn’t help shivering in delighted anticipation. 

‘Wait,’ he thought, ‘we need lubricant!’

He immediately thought of the antibiotic ointment they’d used before but he rejected it before it could form. He didn’t want medicine for this. For this, he wanted something that added to their sense of warmth and safety, of friendship and being a team.

Chocolate-laced coffee, like what Sephiroth had drunk at breakfast. Zack had teased the General about his sweet tooth but he’d made sure the chocolate syrup had been on the tray so he couldn’t mind it that much; and Cloud had liked how it tasted afterwards on the General’s lips. He put out his hand and grabbed the bottle of aromatic oil. “Use this?” he offered.

Sephiroth opened the bottle and gave an appreciative sniff. “Wonderful,” he said approvingly even as he drizzled some over the dimple’s at the base of Cloud’s spine. The blond arched away – the oil wasn’t warm, but the General didn’t let him retreat far.

“Oh goody,” Zack quipped, although his ragged breathing conflicted with the light tone, “Seph’s first coffee of the day. This shouldn’t take long.”

Cloud punished him by squeezing a little harder on the delicate globes he was holding. Dark skinned hips jerked up, begging for a release that Cloud wasn’t ready to give yet. The timing had to be just right. He went back to licking and nipping at tight belly muscles even as the General massaged the oil into his skin, up his spine – and down; down into his cleft, massaging the surface of his skin. The rich coffee scent of the oil invaded his senses making him feel dizzy.

He was breathing hard now. He and Zack could be twins by the sounds they were making, helpless pleading noises forced from between clenched teeth.

They were warm, and oblivious to the wailing that dug at the walls of the house. Here, between the three of them, there was power and heat, building and building. He needed it and he wanted it. As Sephiroth prepared him for penetration, he moaned his desire out onto the head of Zack’s thick penis. He wanted to swallow it down, to suck on it, to make their dark-haired friend explode into his mouth.

“Soon,” his General murmured, “let it build some more,” and Cloud obeyed.

 

* * *

  
“Shit,” Zack cried as the liquid poured out of the chamber, “that stinks!” It did once the first intense burst had died down it also smelled familiar. He’d sweated out something similar after receiving his First Class-level mako injections from Hojo. “Oh fuck,” he whispered in prayer.

“Can you remove her from the equipment?” Sephiroth asked. His voice was low and purring, which seemed odd until Zack got a good look at the General. He held the small soldier off the plating even though most of the tainted mako had drained away, and Cloud was clinging to Sephiroth... and rubbing up against him. There was definitely rubbing going on. Fuck, he wished he were in Cloud’s dream instead of this reality...

“Commander,” Sephiroth prodded.

... where he had to touch smelly and probably slimy, Psycho Alien Bitches. He sighed and instantly regretted it as the stench invaded his lungs and made his eyes water.

He retreated, stepping closer to his companions. “A sec,” he said and breathed deeply of the relatively fresh air. He enjoyed the hint of mocha that surrounded his CO, a leftover from his breakfast ‘coffee’ that was more than half chocolate syrup, and utterly disgusting to everyone else who imagined drinking it. It was so perfectly Sephiroth – bittersweet. He smelled better than good today. Predictably, his body reacted the same way it usually did when he breathed in too close to the General – Cloud didn’t help either, but at least he had lots of experience at working around a partial erection without permanently damaging himself. He shifted his weight and ignored it. It would go away eventually.

“Right,” he announced and went back into the chamber. He looked at the machinery, at the wires and tubes connecting her to the reactor. He tried not to think too hard about what he was looking at but he made sure to take a good look at the mechanical parts. Then he thankfully retreated to better smelling air to report, “I don’t think she can be removed. A lot of that stuff appears to be embedded right into her body. It looks like, and this is fucking freaking me out just so you know, that the mako was being flushed through her system and being infused or tainted, or fucking poisoned or something, by whatever she is.”

He swallowed bile, “Just like we were.” Zack knew that Sephiroth would have smelled the same thing he had, and he trusted that the General would recognize it.

“The First Class mako injections,” Sephiroth confirmed. Zack nodded silently, miserably. He had bits of that thing inside him. Hojo had injected him, infected them, with her taint.

“You have declared, many times, that SOLDIERs are not monsters. While I hesitated to believe it of myself, or Genesis and Angeal, I have no hesitation believing that statement when applied to you. A less monstrous person I have never met.” He reached out a hand to grip Zack’s arm, unconsciously stroking it lightly. “I can only hope to be as kind, and as honourable as you, Commander Fair. It is, and always has been, a privilege to know you.” He gave the dark-haired SOLDIERs arm a shake, “And as you are not a monster, even with bits of her inside you, then I must believe that I am not a monster either.” Then he smiled, his real smile, the one he kept hidden, “I will not be outdone by my Second-in-Command. How would I live it down in barracks?”

Zack’s face was so hot he was sure it was going to ignite spontaneously. Sephiroth’s normal level of praise was a curt two word “well done.” This outpouring of emotion was embarrassing and exhilarating. It made his breath short and his head spin. He was glad when the young corporal moaned and provided a distraction. “When Cloud comes out of it, I am going to tease him about this so bad,” he promised.

Sephiroth’s smile turned roguish, “As will I,” he agreed, but Zack didn’t think their teasing would take the same form. He shifted his stance a little to relieve the sudden return of pressure. That hadn’t taken much. A new topic of conversation was in order, he thought, “So, do you want to fry her in situ or should I cut her out of there?”

“There will likely be less damage to the reactor if she’s removed from the equipment beforehand. However, she will be easier to target as one large mass. We can always cut her up afterwards and make sure all her parts are thoroughly incinerated.”

“As you wish, General,” Zack smiled and twirled his huge sword, “get ready to for the shish-kebab.”

Sephiroth’s smile turned feral. Despite his protests this morning, Zack and Cloud weren’t the only bloodthirsty ones in the group. Seph raised the arm with his Firaga and gathered his will. He only hoped that it would be enough to kill this thing that had survived, half-alive yet still toxic, for over two millennia.

He wanted her to burn.

 

* * *

  
“Burn for me, Cloud,” that rich, silky voice slid over him, just as hard velvet flesh slid in. Oh, it was wonderful, better than this morning. He was stretched and ready this time, so there was no pain only pleasure so deep he could feel it in his soul. “Make Commander Fair burn too,” the General ordered and Cloud, released at last, obeyed. 

He relaxed his mouth and jaw, and moved down Zack’s length, just the way the General had showed him. He closed his lips around the blood rich flesh and swallowed his way down to the hilt. Zack’s muttered mix of curses and prayers was a steady background noise, spiking a little when Cloud sucked. It didn’t last long; he had to breath and his gag reflex was fighting back, so he slid up and took a moment to enjoy the smooth, sure movements of the man behind him – his General, his friend, his lover, buried deep inside him and feeling so perfect there. He moaned happily and wished it would last.

Sephiroth moved cool lips over the hot skin of his nape and licked a trail down his spine. Zack had one hand buried in Cloud’s hair, gently cupping and massaging his cheek in time with his strokes. His other hand reached down to cup his tight sac, rubbing it and Cloud’s sensitive wrist at the same time. He was caught between two fires: Zack was the heat of a wood fire, crackling and sparking in welcome. Sephiroth was the cold heat of a chemical flame, pure, steady, and enticing.

It couldn’t last of course, the need was building; the moment was almost here. He could feel it in Zack’s thrumming tension, in the strong pulses running along his length. He could feel it in himself, a vibration in his being, tuning itself to Sephiroth’s strokes. It was in Sephiroth’s harsh breathing.

Then he felt it. A silent demand passed through Sephiroth. It was time.

A final hard suck and a twist of his hands and Zack exploded into his mouth. The rich, salty taste was thick in his mouth. He loved it. He kept up the suction, determined to get every drop even as his own release roared through him. He clenched and bucked, but remembered to not to bite down on the tender flesh in his mouth. Then he felt the flames engulf the General, an inferno passed from one to the next in sequence. Sephiroth arched over him, pounding into him with his orgasm. Igniting the fire within Cloud all over again so that he didn’t release Zack but kept his mouth on him, kept working him until the dark SOLDIER convulsed once again.

They were filled with endless fire. It exploded through them and out of them, following a path created by the silver-haired warrior. It was a white-hot incandescence that incinerated everything and left no room for the ice.

 

* * *

  
It only took a moment but it seemed like a lifetime. Sephiroth and Zack were pulled to their toes as the silver-haired warrior flung his Firaga at the creature. Cloud, lost in his vision, cried out his release. Jenova caught in a firestorm of destruction screamed her fury to the world and drove the two SOLDIERs to their knees.

Then the world exploded.


	12. My Happy Ending

* * *

Cloud shuddered and pulsed, crying out in ecstasy and wonder while Jenova’s still living corpse flamed green-yellow-white.

Her scream rose to agonizing heights. Not just in their minds but audible and echoing in the huge chamber. It didn’t matter that they’d cut her out of the machines, fire sparked out of circuits and screens blew. The odd flames buried themselves deep inside her.

The screaming stopped – blessed silence.

Then the fire exploded out of her, disintegrating her body and flinging still smouldering bits throughout the chamber. Most fell into the mako but the Sephiroth’s stunned eyes could see that they still burned. There were pieces of her on the platform flooring. The smaller bits of her popped and exploded with colours just like fireworks. The larger parts burned with those odd green-yellow-white flames, flaring in time with Cloud’s choked moans.

“Did he– did Cloud just... cum?” Zack sputtered, feeling incredibly uncomfortable but turned on, which made him even more embarrassed.

Sephiroth, who’d gathered the still rocking body into his arms, had a better view down the front of his lover. “Indeed he did,” he answered, thankful that his lower half was hidden, unlike the Commander.

Zack whistled, determined to make a joke of it while he tried to force his own erection away. “I’ve heard of getting off on danger, but this is a little extreme, don’t you think?”

“Look at the flames,” Sephiroth suggested and Zack did, noting absently that Cloud had been right about the mako-soaked flesh exploding, “That’s not normal for a Firaga.”

“Are you saying that Cloud’s, um, y’know,” Sephiroth raised an eyebrow, daring his blushing SiC to actually say it. “His orgasm had something to do with it?”

“I will have to wait until he rouses to ask him but, just as I cast it, I felt an incredible burst of energy passing from Cloud into me and then out again, joining with the Firaga.”

“But that’s...” nuts, he was going to say but couldn’t quite. He’d felt something too.

“Magic?” said the silver-haired warrior.

Sephiroth returned his attention to the small blond warrior who was still in his trance, still shuddering but he seemed to be calming somewhat. Zack was watching things go boom, not just Jenova, although watching her burn was the most satisfying. No, he was looking at the control panels that were popping and the pipes and wires that were sparking. He couldn’t be sure, but he didn’t think cutting the Psycho Alien Bitch out of her harness had lessened the damage to the reactor.

Neither one of them was paying any attention to the chamber entrance, thinking that the immediate danger had passed. That was a mistake.

“What have you done, you foolish child? You’ve spoiled everything!” The voice that howled at them in outrage was horrifyingly familiar.

Sephiroth was trapped by Cloud’s comatose form. Zack wasn’t. He leapt to his feet, drawing his Buster sword and preparing to defend his companions from Dr. Creepy. It would’ve worked except that Hojo had brought troopers with him. They rightfully perceived the charging SOLDIER as a threat to their assignment and the troop captain allowed two of them to fire. They were supposed to be warning shots, but the angle was bad and Zack was moving fast. Some of the bullets caught him in the legs, forcing him down. He was ready to get back to it when Sephiroth’s smooth voice stopped him, “Hold, Zack. Look after the corporal.”

There was a long look between them. Hojo was his to deal with, but he needed Cloud protected. Zack nodded abruptly. He’d look after Cloud, let the mako heal his wounds, and Seph could finally confront the twisted man who called himself his father.

The General walked calmly down the thick pipe that had led to Jenova’s special chamber. His very calmness caused the troopers to relax. They knew the silver-haired warrior was in complete control of himself and wouldn’t let the situation escalate. They knew it because that was the atmosphere Sephiroth was consciously projecting. He needed them to trust him.

“I was sent here to check out a problem with the reactor. I fixed it,” he waved a hand at the smudge spots that had once been Jenova. They still smoked and sparked, and they smelled awful which would certainly help convince the soldiers that something bad had been killed. A common prejudice and one Sephiroth had no hesitation in exploiting in this situation.

“You didn’t fix it!” Hojo screeched, “You’ve ruined everything.” 

Sephiroth looked at the burnt and wrecked banks of equipment. He couldn’t argue with Hojo on that point. 

“You killed her; how could you do that? Didn’t you hear her call?”

Sephiroth froze at the words. “Whose call?” he queried, even as his mind whirled in speculations and possibilities. “What should I have heard?”

“Her voice, her call,” Hojo was enraged. “You were designed to answer her call!”

“I heard no call.” Technically, she had been raving – not calling.

“It was them!” he spat venomously. “They did something that perverted you. You weren’t supposed to bring them!”

The troopers around the scientist started to shift uncomfortably. They’d been assigned to Hojo but none of them had any idea what their mission actually was. Most of them had thought they were going out on a bug-hunt, collecting samples for the weird professor; they’d certainly done that before, they hadn’t been expecting... whatever this was. So they shifted their weight, exchanged silent messages where the scientist couldn’t see, and subtly backed away from him.

Sephiroth, who wasn’t the youngest general ever appointed by Shin-Ra for the publicity alone, saw the soldiers’ movements, gauged their reactions to being here, and knew they would hesitate to shoot again. Hojo appeared barely sane; he was muttering and braying out that spine-chilling laugh of his. The General needed to find a lever that would push Hojo beyond merely creepy and into the ‘threat’ category so he could kill him.

“I was sent here to deal with an influx of monsters as well as check on the reactor. Since I was given no details on what kind of monsters – they could have been mutated Nibel Dragons, I thought bringing an extra SOLDIER merely prudent.”

“You should’ve let the puppy,” Hojo’s voice dripped scorn and Zack winced at hearing Angeal’s pet name for him coming from those contemptuous lips, “continue killing monsters while you came here to find her.”

“It’s just as well I did not,” Sephiroth coolly replied. “When we came to the reactor there was a thing imbedded into the machinery – a monster. It was likely causing the problems so we killed it.”

“She wasn’t a monster, you idiot boy, she was a god!” He was so irate that spit flew from his mouth. Sephiroth had never seen the professor so irate. However, he was still a long way from being a threat.

Sephiroth hesitated delicately, knowing the watching soldiers would interpret this as him offering a chance to the senior staff member to reconsider his bizarre statement. “A god,” He said neutrally, knowing Hojo would consider both the tone and the words a sign of contempt.

“Yes, yes!” Hojo shouted. “A god! It’s obvious, or should have been especially to you. I was so careful constructing you. Where could I have gone wrong...” he trailed off going back to his internal debate.

“Why would you consider that thing a god?” Although that answered the question of who had built the beautiful lie.

“Because it’s obvious!” Hojo cackled a moment then drew himself up, preparing to lecture the ignorant, “Millennia ago she arrived on the planet–”

“It’s not Gaian?” Sephiroth interrupted.

“No she’s not,” Hojo said deliberately. “No more than you are. She is a higher being. Now be quiet, boy, so you can learn your true purpose. When she arrived here, two thousand years ago, the planet was populated by a race called the Cetra–”

“The Cetra are a myth,” Sephiroth interrupted again.

“Be quiet!” He practically jumped up and down in his agitation. Hojo hated to be interrupted when he was showing off his superiority. Something Sephiroth knew very well. “She offered herself to the Cetra but they rejected her. Those people – those people took everything. The planet was taken from her. They destroyed all who worshipped her, except for one. Jenova was too powerful for them to destroy so they trapped her in mako and buried her. Intending her to be forgotten for all time.”

“You found it,” Sephiroth already knew Hojo hadn’t found Jenova. It had been in the notes, but it would encourage Hojo to rant while the silver-haired warrior listened to what was happening behind him. He’d heard Cloud stirring, taking deep breaths, making small noises. He hoped his little blond lover was returning fully to them with no damage from the prolonged fever or any other side effects from his odd trance state.

“Oh no,” Hojo cackled. “I didn’t find her. That fool Gast did in the Northern Caves. Cetra used to live there. That’s all he cared about, the Cetra. He thought she was a mere Cetra. He had no appreciation for what she was, what she could offer him. With her strength and knowledge, she should have been this planet's ruler, but he was too wrapped up in that pathetic female of his,” he waved dismissively. “She tainted Gast’s mind against Jenova so he couldn’t hear her voice.”

“Could you hear it, Professor?”

“Of course, I could hear her!” he chuckled, “How else did I know to create you?” He rubbed his chin thoughtfully and didn’t notice Sephiroth drawing closer. “I’m sure I followed her instructions most carefully and yet you destroyed her...” he muttered.

“What did it tell you, Professor?”

“How to sail the darkness of the cosmos with this planet as our vessel – you’d have known that if you’d been listening,” he scowled accusingly at his ‘son,’ “and ruling the planet, although it’s much more efficient to have someone gullible to take all the blame. Witness Rupert Shin-Ra…” he cackled, “No, no. Let someone else do all the work, I say. I’d rather work on how to be immortal, like a god. I wonder…” he stopped speaking out loud, his thoughts drawn to another puzzle, “Maybe that’s why her genetic structure didn’t adhere to me as well as it should have...”

“You injected yourself with its cells?” Sephiroth managed to sound shocked although he wasn’t. Injecting himself with what sounded like a deadly alien virus in hopes of gaining immortality was something Hojo would do. Now Hojo would appear to the troopers as insane, seditious and at least partially a monster, Sephiroth thought with satisfaction as the soldiers shuffled their feet miserably.

“Of course I did! It was the quickest way to become a god myself,” he laughed, not happily. “Except that it didn’t work and I had to build you instead. And you didn’t work either!” He flung out his hands, “How did you block her voice?”

“I did nothing.” The absolute truth, it gave the impression to the soldiers that Sephiroth hadn’t needed to block her voice because he hadn’t heard it. Sephiroth was therefore sane and a potential ally. If he did this correctly, he would have a dozen impartial troopers to back him up on the necessity of killing Shin-Ra’s head scientist although, if they interfered, he would kill them as well. He had already decided that Hojo would not leave the reactor alive. He was conscienceless, had his own agenda, and was too powerful within Shin-Ra; therefore, he was a threat to Gaia’s security – and his own.

He felt the tingle of a materia cast nearby then heard a soft, metallic ‘plink’. He didn’t have to look to know that Cloud had cast Cure on Zack and it had pushed a bullet out of his leg. Cloud had returned to his senses and Zack was healed. He had back-up if things turned sour.

He was almost within blade range of Hojo. The scientist either didn’t know or didn’t care that he was so close to being in Sephiroth’s kill zone. He was still obsessing about Sephiroth’s lack of ‘proper’ response to Jenova.

“Impossible! If you did nothing then you should have heard her,” he screeched. “I designed you to fulfill her destiny. I followed her instructions absolutely. It’s inconceivable that I failed. Maybe I should deconstruct you. Start again. Yes, that might be a good idea. Or perhaps you are lying? Yet why would you lie? She offered to make us gods; we would rule this planet, use it to sail the universe and live forever. Why would you turn that down?”

“Professor, you’re getting agitated,” Sephiroth said calmly, sliding a step closer

Either Cloud or Zack must have shifted position. They pulled the professor’s attention back to them, not where Sephiroth wanted it. “It was him, wasn’t it – the jungle boy. He had a hand in it somehow. Why did you bring him? There was no need for you to bring him. He shouldn’t be here! However, when we get back to Midgar I will put him to good use. Yes, yes, I can think of many uses for a SOLDIER First Class even one as flawed as that one.” He cackled some more

His response was instinctual, “Commander Fair is my friend and I won’t allow you to touch him.”

“Friend? FRIEND? You don’t have friends. I created you, raised you, trained you to be above those foolish interactions. Gods don’t need friends!” Hojo was vibrating in his fury. Only the troop captain was standing near him now, all the rest had retreated to the very edges of the platform. That none of them had slipped out the entrance was a testament either to their discipline or their fondness for their captain.

One more push, Sephiroth decided. “Professor, perhaps we should take you back to Midgar; have somebody look at you,” and he reached out his right hand knowing Hojo would interpret it as a threat, hoping that he would charge and allow him to pull his weapon in defence. “You are unwell.”

Hojo’s greasy hair was coming out of its tie and was floating around him as if possessed by an evil force. “I am not the one who is unwell. It is you who need help. You turned down godhood for what? For a friend? I will show you what to do with your friend. Shoot him!” he ordered the captain.

The officer protested, “Sir, he’s not a threat.”

Hojo turned on the man. “I decide who’s a threat, you imbecile. Shoot him!”

“I’m sorry Sir, but I must refuse that order.” The captain took up a stance that denied Hojo’s authority. It was almost at-ease, thinking that his refusal would be enough but he underestimated the professor. Most people, looking at the scientist, saw a skinny, eccentric lab geek. One who worked at a desk and rode a computer all day. They forgot that Hojo routinely wrestled conscious and semi-conscious specimens on and off of his examining table all the time. Specimens that were usually larger and heavier than he was and often were desperate to escape. There were muscles under that grimy lab coat.

Being crazy just gave him the speed and determination to go with it.

Hojo reached over and casually slapped the captain hard enough to rock him back. “Imbecile!” He grabbed the weapon and ripped it off his shoulder. The scientist automatically gripped the trigger, pulling it back, and the bullets shot out of the gun and nearly cut the captain’s legs off.

The professor knew nothing of firearms and despised those who used them. His knowledge was limited to ‘pull this and bullets come out there’. The captain was lucky, Hojo was unprepared for the recoil, and so he missed the man’s torso – which is what he’d intended to hit. It also forced the doctor to fight for his balance, but he kept his finger on the trigger so that bullets and ricochets were flying all over the chamber, endangering everyone in it.

As fast as the bullets were, Sephiroth was faster. He had Masamune drawn and was moving the final distance between himself and the professor before the officer finished falling to the floor. It took only a moment more for him to bring the blade down and to cut through the arm holding the weapon. Unfortunately, that didn’t loosen Hojo’s hand from the gun so it continued to fire even as it fell. Sephiroth spun and kicked both of them over the side of the platform. It was enough to dislodge the finger from the trigger and the noise of gunfire ceased.

Hojo was screaming. Sephiroth wasn’t ashamed to admit that he enjoyed the sound. It echoed the screams he had made as a child while this man poked at him and cut him open. He could let him continue to suffer and scream but the wound he had was one he could survive and that was unacceptable. He reversed his swing, raising Masamune so it was parallel to the floor. He kept the blade extremely sharp, in fact, its edge was unmatched by any in Shin-Ra. It had no trouble slicing through the thick muscles, strong tendons, and heavy bone of Hojo’s neck. The screaming changed to a liquid gurgle.

Later the troopers would all swear they heard Hojo’s creepy laugh as his head rolled off his shoulders, across the platform and over the edge. They would tell the wide-eyed new guys how his laugh echoed in the chamber as it fell, hair flying out and around the fleshy orb. They’d follow it up with description of the blood fountaining out of his severed neck like something from a cheesy horror movie, and they’d speak with awe at how General Sephiroth didn’t get a drop of blood on him.

Right now they were frozen. It had happened so fast the troopers didn’t know how to react. Zack was watching Hojo’s body topple, both fascinated by it and worried that it would somehow reanimate and attack them all. Sephiroth was lost in the realization that it was over, he was finally free of Hojo; free of the reluctant loyalty he had given the man who raised him. They were safe now.

Cloud, fully recovered, was the only one who was moving. He was running to the injured officer with his pack full of potions. Zack’s wound was healed, Sephiroth wasn’t damaged; they could wait. The concern now had to be the injured. The captain wasn’t enhanced and wounds like those he’d sustained could easily kill him. He could bleed out or go into shock and, if the soldiers had brought a medic, he was as frozen as the rest of them. There was no time to think, he had to get to the captain, so he ran down the pipe to the injured man as fast as his strong legs could take him. He’d planned, vaguely, to drop and slide over to him when he got close enough. He hadn’t counted on how slick fresh blood would make the platform’s flooring.

Instead of the pace or so he’d intended to glide, he just kept going. Past Hojo’s empty body that was already starting to dissolve into the Lifestream, past the wounded officer, past the stunned troopers and right toward the edge.

Forget screaming. He grabbed at the grating; fingers sliding as his legs shot over. ‘Grab, grab, grab,’ he ordered himself, tearing off nails in his desperation. He wasn’t going to get a grip. His waist was over the edge. This was it, he was going to fall. He shut his eyes so he wouldn’t have to see it.

Long hands gripped his forearms, strong hands, and stopped his slide with a jerk that was almost painful. Long hair flowed out and back, falling over him like a silk blanket. He knew those arms, that hair. He opened his eyes. Sephiroth was there, “As I told Fair, I’ve just found you, I won’t be happy if you die before I can get you home. Do you understand, Corporal?”

Cloud could look down through the grating at the roiling lake of liquid mako that was the heart of the reactor. It was a long way down. It was a much nicer view to look at cat-slit eyes and that small secret smile that Sephiroth showed to so few. Cloud smiled widely in return, “Yes, Sir.”

Sephiroth was lying stretched out on the floor, as if he’d dived to catch the blond. He could see Zack, crouched over the General’s legs, a nice strong grip bracing him. “Moving a little fast weren’t ya there, Spike,” the First commented with a relieved smile. “I guess all that training you’ve been doing with me is starting to pay off.”

“If you call having to run from Tseng because you put Limburger cheese in his heater, training.” His voice was a bit shaky but that was from happiness not fear. They’d caught him and saved him. It’d be all right now. Except that his legs were still dangling over the edge of disaster. “Um, what now, Sirs?”

“Climb up me, Cloud,” Sephiroth ordered. That was an interesting order, Cloud thought, one that deserved exploration later. For now, he had to figure out a way to pull himself, and the twenty kilos or so of potions in his backpack, up the slick leather-covered body of General Sephiroth.

He was so going to pull out the man’s hair.

He needn’t have worried. Although not granted SOLDIER speed, the troopers did move to save him. They braced each other so that two would hold the legs of one as they reached over to grab Cloud’s legs and belt. It didn’t take long for them to pull him up so he was laying along the edge of the platform. He looked down at the noxious looking lake and was tempted to stick his tongue out at it, as if he’d defeated an enemy.

Then he remembered the injured officer. “I’ve got potions in my backpack,” he announced and shrugged out of it.

“Fucking, great. Bring’em here, stat!” ordered a voice. Cloud guessed it was the unit’s medic.

Zack grabbed the pack, moving in a SOLDIER blur. He didn’t slip on the grating, Cloud noted resentfully but his musing was cut short by being grabbed and dragged to lie next to and almost under, Sephiroth’s long length.

“We nearly lost you.” Bare fingertips ran down a soft, blushing cheek. “In the future, you must be more careful,” Sephiroth said. Cloud couldn’t help but lean into that touch. Sephiroth was alive, and he was safe. His eyes closed in contentment. Then he realized his position, what it would reveal to the troopers, the gossip it would engender, and he struggled against the arms holding him. “Sir! You should let me go.”

“Hush, Cloud,” the General responded, completely ignoring the young man’s distress. “I am enjoying your survival – and hiding your wet spot,” he purred in teasing mockery. “Whatever were you thinking of in your trance?”

His... trance? Cloud’s eyes widened, cheeks went pale then red, not pink, but boiled lobster red. Hands nervously moved to the front of his pants to, y’know, check. Sure enough, “Oh my god.”

“Well?” Sephiroth was more than smiling now, he was anticipating. Based on his little lover’s reaction, he definitely wanted to know what Cloud had been experiencing.

“Umm,” Breathing is good, he thought to himself. “We should check on the captain.... Sir.”

“Hmmm,” he purred, running fingers down those hot, hot cheeks. “I will find out eventually.” Then he stood up, one smooth instantaneous motion. He held out his hand for Cloud and pulled him to his feet with equal ease. “But you are correct. We should tend to the wounded. You could use your Cure on him.” He didn’t release Cloud’s hand.

“Sir,” he whispered, tugging discretely on his hand, trying to release it. “Only authorized personnel are allowed to use materia. That rule hasn’t changed yet.”

“I’m authorizing you. Use the Cura, Cloud.”

Sephiroth put his free hand on a broad shoulder and turned the youth to face the injured man, knowing that it was easier for neophytes to direct materia when the target was in sight. Cloud concentrated on the power stored in the green orb, so warm and almost alive, they seemed much sharper now. He released it and the captain was surrounded by a dense green cloud that swirled around him. They could barely make out the bullets being ejected from the man’s body before the holes closed without a scar.

“That feels Mastered,” Zack said, holding his hands out as if to a fire, before swaggering over to the couple. “In-fucking-credible, Cloud. What exactly were you doing in that trance of yours, anyway? Playing with little balls?” The grin was sly and knowing, especially when the blond’s blush returned as red as before. “It sure sounded like fun.”

Sephiroth hummed agreement, “I am also very curious, and very patient.”

Cloud opened and closed his mouth a few times unable to come up with a suitable response. A change in topics was obviously called for. “Hojo’s really dead?”

Sephiroth laughed lightly, recognizing the tactic. “Stop pulling, Cloud. Your hand is perfectly fine where it is.”

It was Zack who answered, “Very, very dead.”

“And Jenova?”

“Oh yeah, she blowed up real good. The little bits burned nice too; pretty colours and everything, just like you said.” Zack smiled again, his sly, teasing grin and Cloud braced himself.” Seph says something you did in your trance had a part in it, so you’re not going to be able to get out of answering.”

“I just, um...yeah. Are you going to get into trouble, Sir?”

“For killing Hojo? No, at least not much. Hojo was mentally unbalanced and a threat to all our safety as I’m sure the captain will corroborate. The damage to the reactor is another matter. The President won’t be happy about it.”

The captain, hearing himself mentioned, walked over on unsteady legs. They were healed but his mind had to catch up to his body. He kept expecting them to collapse under him. He saluted briskly, “Thank you, General. I believe we all owe you our lives. I know I certainly do.”

“At ease, Captain. Your men are all well?”

“Yes, Sir. Murphy threw up but this is his first mission.” The officer tried but he couldn’t quite keep his eyes on Sephiroth’s. Part of it was the oddness of them – green cat slits, but the greater part was the way the General was holding the young corporal to him. The young soldier was blushing so hard the captain was surprised he had enough blood in his legs to stay upright.

“It’s to be expected then. I won’t concern myself with it. Where are you and your men stationed?”

“We’ve got rooms at the Inn in town, Sir, the second and third Shin-Ra rooms. I understand you and your SiC and, uh, the corporal have the first room.” Sephiroth ignored the hesitation.

“Very good. I’ll be calling Midgar and extending your orders. There is a lab under the Shin-Ra mansion that needs to be investigated and inventoried. And we may be moving someone to Midgar or Kalm, although I’ll have to confirm her wishes in the matter.” He looked down at the soldier in his arms. “Do you think your mother might like to finally leave Nibelheim at Shin-Ra’s expense?”

“I don’t know, Sir.” Cloud could barely bring himself to look at anyone.

“Buck up, Cloud, you’re a fucking hero,” Zack stated. “It’s nothing to be ashamed of. Unlike the dark spot on your pants,” he added low voiced.

“But the General’s reputation...” he protested.

“It’s not my place to say anything,” the captain stated. “I’ll make sure the men don’t either.”

‘Yeah right,’ Cloud thought, once the troopers got back to Midgar they’d be gossiping as bad as Nibelheim’s elders ever had. The whole world would know General Sephiroth was involved with a lowly corporal.

“Let them talk, Captain. I’m not going to try to keep my involvement a secret. In fact, I feel honoured that such a brave young man has chosen me to be his companion. He was the first to act to save you, you know.”

“Atta boy, Seph,” Zach murmured in approval. He’d never liked the idea of hiding Cloud away like a guilty secret.

Cloud turned to face his silver haired lover, “But, Sir, you said–”

“I don’t care,” he placed one long finger on full, pouty lips then Sephiroth bent down and kissed his young lover softly but passionately. He lifted his head, almost purring in contentment – Cloud had come back to him. “I don’t care. We’ll make it work.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My thanks to[](http://jaded-grin.livejournal.com/profile)[ **jaded_grin**](http://jaded-grin.livejournal.com/)  who gave me a much-needed nudge in a better direction; I’m much happier with this chapter now.
> 
> For all those who wondered, and even if you didn’t, all the titles are taken from songs. Some are old favourites, some I went looking for to match the chapter; all of them are on my music player. Soundtrack is available for download here: www.mediafire.com/?xp67fdpi3cfiub3


	13. Second Hand News

* * *

**_Breaking News – The Head of the ShinRa Science Department is Dead_ **

Reports are coming in from the Western Continent that Professor Silas Hojo, the long-time head of research for ShinRa Electric Power Company has been killed in an accident at a mako reactor. There are no reports of any other injuries.

ShinRa's media relations department has confirmed that the Nibelheim reactor has been shut down but deny that the reactor accident required the evacuation of the nearby village.

We will be keeping an eye on the situation and keeping you updated as news is available.

Now, here's Corinne with the weather…

 

* * *

Commander Zack Fair was a happy man. Of course, most people thought that was his normal state of being and he could concede that there was some truth to that assessment. Right now, though he was happier than normal, smugly content even.

Dr. Creepy was dead and ShinRa couldn't even blame Sephiroth for having to kill him – the man had gone crazy with a large caliber automatic gun in the main chamber of a mako reactor. The general had had to kill him, and there were nearly a dozen independent witnesses to back that opinion up. So Sephiroth and the rest of SOLDIER and fuck knows how many other people could rest a hell of a lot easier at night. Score one for the good guys.

Evil Psycho Alien Bitch was dead, and ShinRa couldn't blame them for that either. Nobody told the General that the Nibelheim reactor was home to one of the Science Department's favourite projects. He was sent out to kill monsters, as far as he knew the thing had inserted itself into the workings of the mako reactor and needed to be removed. If they hadn't wanted him to kill it, they should have given him more information.

Sephiroth and Cloud were in that happy place that new relationships always seem to being to people. Cloud was smiling, for Shiva's sake and Sephiroth had a deep sleepy-satisfied look that made even Zack feel... something. He'd offered to shift to one of the other rooms with the troops but both Sephiroth and Cloud had said no. As long as he lingered in the taproom in the evening or spent time flirting with Mrs. Gruber in the morning, Sephiroth had said and Cloud had agreed. So he spent his nights cuddling with two really cute guys and worrying how he'd explain it to Aerith. In this situation he was happy for them, not so happy for himself but it was still good.

They were in the library right now, flirting in their nerdy, circumspect way over the books in Hojo's collections; sorting them into piles of Real, Maybe Real, Probably Not Real and Definitely Not Real. They were cute as they argued over ink textures and the colour of aged glue, and while he left them to their happy geekdom, he got to explore the caves, which had led him back to the coffins. He felt like humming some scary music as he approached them. He'd left the two troopers Seph had sent with him back at the door, just to make sure nothing snuck up on him.

He kicked the lid off the first one and all he got was a cloud of dust in his face. The second one released a swarm of bugs, which were annoying rather than spooky. Nothing in the third but the fourth one... the fourth one actually had a corpse in it.

It was too cool!

Except the guy seemed to be in pretty good shape for a dead person, he realized. He moved closer. Tall, pale... well, duh! he told himself in disgust, long hair, raggedy red cape. He didn't really look dead, Zack decided and he didn't smell dead either.

One of the troopers, too curious for health, walked up to the body and poked it. Before Zack could blink, the coffin guy had grabbed the soldier and tossed him across the room. Zack jumped and grabbed him before he could smash against the wall, dropping and rolling with him right into another coffin and knocking that over before they stopped moving.

Coffin guy was sitting up. "Who is it!? You must leave," his voice was gravelly with disuse.

"Odin's ass, you're alive!" Zack exclaimed. "Shit, are you another one of Hojo's experiments?"

"I have nothing to say to strangers. Get out. This mansion is the beginning of your nightmare."

'Okay,' Zack muttered to himself. This guy was spooky enough for three dark caves. He stood up and moseyed over to coffin-guy. "Actually the nightmare is over. Hojo's dead, Jenova's been exploded... that was fun. It's too bad you missed it. So how long have you been down here?"

"I cannot speak." He laid back down, hands folded over his chest.

"Sure you can," Zack said, and perched himself on the side of the coffin. "You're doing a great job although you sound a little rusty. At least tell me your name." No response. "I'm Zack Fair, SOLDIER First Class, with ShinRa Security." He sat and waited a moment, "What about you?"

Coffin-boy opened his eyes, "I was with... the Shinra Manufacturing Department in Administrative Research, otherwise known as–"

"The Turks!" he shouted in amazement, "That's too fucking weird." He thought of something else. "Are your eyes red?

"What?" Coffin-boy blinked in surprise.

"Are your eyes red?" Zack repeated.

"Yes."

"Is it recent?" he asked next.

"No," the poor man sounded baffled, "They've been this way for many years."

"Fuck me, you're Cloud's red-eyed Turk! He's going to be so chuffed to meet you."

"It... I am formerly of the Turks. I have no affiliation with Shinra now."

"You will again, because I'm with SOLDIER, Cloud's a corporal in the regular army and his boyfriend's General Sephiroth who's the head of ShinRa Security, and they are going to want to meet you." He offered a hand to help the guy, "You never did tell me your name." Coffin-boy took Zack's hand and let himself be hauled upright, then he looked surprised at being there. Zack stared at him, wide-eyed and perky, "Name?"

"Vincent Valentine," the ex-Turk responded.

"Excellent, let's go meet the others," he ushered the red-eyed ex-Turk with the shaggy hair and the funky coat and the... what was that on his hand? "So what was your weapon, Vince. You don't mind if I call you Vince, do you?"

"Yes."

"Ooo-kay, I'll try to remember not to."

Behind the two dark-haired fighters the troopers looked at each other, moving close together for comfort.

"I am never, ever, trying out for SOLDIER. They are totally fucking nuts." The other silently nodded his head in agreement.

* * *

_**Breaking News: More Corruption Uncovered in ShinRa Science Department…** _

In what has got to be the biggest story in the last decade, more evidence of wrong-doing by the late Professor Silas Hojo has been discovered.

That's right, Jörge. According to a reliable source, ShinRa's Administrative Research department has been reviewing all the records left by Professor Hojo and there are some amazing discrepancies. As our viewers will no doubt recall, Professor Hojo was killed earlier this week when he attacked General Sephiroth at the mako reactor in Nibelheim.

Apparently, Dyan, comments he made during the attack led officials to believe that the Head of ShinRa's Science Department might have been engaged in unauthorized and even illegal activities. For the latest update, we go to Ven Lencer who is at ShinRa headquarters.

Thanks, Jörge. I'm here in the lobby of the ShinRa Tower where Vice-President Rufus ShinRa has just left the podium…

* * *

"Mom? I've brought them like I promised," the blond stepped into the small front room that used to double as his bedroom back when he lived at home. The house looked polished right down to the rug and Cloud could tell his mom had made a special effort since she usually hated house-cleaning and ditched it to read or write whenever she had the excuse.

"Bring them in, sweetie," came her soft voice.

"General, Zack. Come on in," he waved his companions forward. "Just wipe your boots on the mat; you don't have to take them off." Which was a good thing, he thought, since the General's boots went halfway up his thighs. Sexy, but difficult to remove – he had experience with them now, bad experience, so he could only hope to learn a trick to taking them off.

"Mom, this is General Sephiroth and Commander Zack Fair. Guys, this is my mom, Jennice Strife."

"It's my pleasure, Mrs. Strife. Please call me Sephiroth," said a smooth baritone as the General reached out to shake her hand. No one listening would be able to guess that his stomach was clenching or that he'd endlessly rehearsed those short sentences so that they wouldn't flutter with nerves.

She was tiny, even smaller than her son. She had the same eyes and the same rich-gold hair, the same firm handshake and her eyes were just as steady. "Call me Jennice," she responded before turning to Cloud's other friend. He was taller but more openly friendly. "You must be Zack. Cloud's told me a lot about you."

Zack grinned and took her hand, raising it to his lips, "It was all lies, I swear… well, except for the nice bits. Those are true."

She laughed, delighted, "Oh you are good." She waved them in, "Please, have a seat. Can I get you anything to drink? I have coffee, tea or a rather nice cider they brew here."

"Actually, Mrs. Strife," Sephiroth answered, "We have something for you." From a bag he pulled out a thick, leather-bound book. It looked old.

Cloud's mother, the librarian, reached out greedy hands, "Oh my goodness, where'd you get that?" She carried it over to the table but didn't open it, just examined the outside of it.

"At the ShinRa Mansion. You could say it was left to me. We thought it would be an appropriate gift." The two SOLDIERs watched perplexed as she went over to a dresser in her sleeping area and opened a drawer. Zack and the General exchanged worried glances.

"It's okay," Cloud reassured them. "She just wants gloves so she doesn't get body oils on it and stuff." Zack raised his hands to look at them and realized he was wearing his gloves as was Sephiroth. He released a silent sigh of relief.

"Cloud, why don't you get your friends something to drink while I take a look at this wonderful gift." She was pulling on thin, fabric gloves the kind high-society ladies wear in Midgar. Cloud, already familiar with his friends' tastes poured out the coffee, finding and adding sugar and cream as required.

Jennice opened the cover and examined the pages, putting her face nearly on the table to look at it sideways before turning the page. "Hmmm," she straightened. "You do realize that this is a forgery?" she asked hesitantly.

"Actually, your son already pointed that out. You trained him well." She coloured prettily and reminded Sephiroth even more strongly of her son. "His knowledge of books and printing saved my life and perhaps the lives of everyone in Nibelheim."

"Sir!" Cloud's blush was much more robust than his mother's had been.

"It's true, Cloud. You can't escape it," the General purred. He'd promised himself he wouldn't be overtly seductive around Cloud's mother, wanting to make a good impression, however seeing his young lover blush and look shy brought out his predatory instincts. He snuck a glance at Jennice Strife. She had one eyebrow up, looking between the two of them.

"Don't they make a cute couple?" Zack asked, always ready to push the issue.

Both eyebrows went up, "Cloud?" It was her mother's voice and it demanded an honest answer.

"Um, yeah. It just happened recently. I was going to tell you later, privately." He glared daggers at his so-called friend.

She took another longer, deeper look at the silver-haired General. It was the look of a woman who'd worked at a University where she'd heard mountains of creative excuses and lame ones. She'd talked to students full of earnest enthusiasm and utter bull-shit. General Sephiroth, SOLDIER First Class, Operational Commander of Shin-Ra's Armed Forces, Demon of Wutai, barely refrained from fidgeting.

"Just as long as you know, Cloud may look like a light-weight push-over, but he's got a core of absolute steel in him."

"I'm aware of that, ma'am."

"When he makes his mind up, it takes divine intervention to get him to change it again."

"Yes, ma'am," Why did he feel like saluting? Zack, the insolent whelp, was grinning wide enough to show off his back molars.

"He's obviously decided on you and I'd be a fool to try to interfere," she paused, eyes narrowed, "That said, if you hurt my baby boy there is nowhere you can go, no hell deep enough to hide you from me. Do you understand?"

"Mo-omm," Cloud wailed, burying his head in his arms in embarrassment.

"I understand, Mrs. Strife. I will try to be worthy of him."

"Oh Gods," the young blond muttered, "Zack you are so dead!"

"You've made a fine start, Sephiroth, by realizing that he is worth earning." She patted his arm, "Now, let me get the cookies."

* * *

_**Breaking News for Members of the Silver Elite!** _

In the 'don't know whether to squee or cry' category comes this news from a reliable source:

Sephiroth's cute new Adjutant is apparently a lot more than an office drone – at least to the Silver General. According to our source, Sephiroth credits the little hottie with saving his life in Nibelheim. We may find that hard to believe but there's no doubt that the premier SOLDIER First Class holds the sergeant in high regard – and maybe even holds the guy in his arms at night!

Details on the general's new aide aren't being released for security reasons but we have a picture taken 'backstage' at the victory ceremony that may be of the lucky guy. We'll give a free signed copy of the new Sephiroth picture to anyone who has accurate information on him. We'll throw in a year's membership if you can prove there's more to their relationship than what ShinRa's admitting to.

Visit our website for more details and to discuss this new and exciting development.

* * *

"Hey, beautiful!" She was just like he remembered, kneeling in her little flower patch in the run-down church.

"Zack!" she jumped up and brushed off her hands on her skirt. She ran toward him and jumped, knowing absolutely that he would catch her. Which he did, and swung her around a couple times for good measure. When he finally stopped, he kept her raised up so they were eye level.

From high ahead came a low-pitched bugling sound. Zack looked up to see the Angeal-mutation still in the rafters, still looking after his girl. He waved his hand at the creature, "Thanks for looking after her."

"I'm not the one who needed looking after," Aerith chided, "I was so worried about you." She took his face between her slim hands, and stroked her thumbs over his high cheekbones. "There was a something seriously wrong up there."

"I came back," he protested, "I should get a kiss."

"But you nearly didn't." She gave him a quick peck.

"That wasn't a proper kiss."

She giggled happily, "Let's go to Wall Market and get some ice-cream to celebrate. Your treat."

"Your treat... unless I get a proper kiss," he said and started walking out of the church with her still lifted in his arms. He got another peck, this time on his nose. He rolled his eyes in mock exasperation. "Kunsel said you needed your cart fixed. I might have time today – depending on how long it takes you to pick your ice-cream."

"No hurry. I've been using a basket and it seems to work okay. I have to make a few more trips is all," she smiled at him, so open in her love, so accepting. He wondered exactly how much she could accept before closing him out, then decided, once again, not to wonder about it.

"You're frowning," she said and Zack realized that he needed to talk to her. Hell, he needed to talk to someone and she was directly involved.

He let her slide down to the ground. "Can we go to the park first?"

"Of course," she agreed. They walked in companionable silence for a while, his arm laid lightly over her shoulder. She looked at him, and put her arms behind her back in that way she had, "It's weird not to have a Turk hanging around anymore. Well, except for Tseng and Reno."

Zack frowned, "Why are they hanging around?"

"For my cookies, silly." 'Cookies,' he thought, 'oh really?'

"Hey, Zack! Good job in Nibelheim!" yelled a man from across road. Zack recognized him as the carpenter from Wall Market he'd bought stuff off of and chatted with a few times, so he waved at him to say thanks.

He hadn't realized, until today, just how many people under the plate knew his name. Many of them wanted to come and talk about Nibelheim and to make sure he was okay and that Hojo was really dead. It made him wonder just how much stuff Hojo had been doing in and to the slums for them to hate him so much, but he supposed if people went missing from down here ShinRa security wasn't going to bust their asses looking for them. It made it a perfect and convenient hunting ground for Hojo when he needed new test subjects.

When they reached the playground, there were a couple kids playing tag around the dome, like they usually did, so he and Aerith claimed the swings for themselves. Well, she claimed one. He was too big and too heavy to even try to sit in one.

"What did you want to talk about?" She looked so bright and happy.

He leaned against a post, arms crossed, looking at the sliver of sky that was visible. "Some things happened on this trip I need to talk to you about. Well, they didn't happen but I thought about them happening and kinda, sorta wanted them to… at least a little. And I wasn't sure how you'd feel about it and, and… fuck! I'm sounding like an idiot. Sorry." He ended on a whisper.

"What kind of things?" She asked, looking at him wide-eyed. He couldn't quite meet that gaze, it was so innocent and trusting. He almost said 'I saw you holding a leather whip' but that would've been a cop-out.

"I've told you about Sephiroth, right?"

"Uh-huh. He was the one that Hojo experimented on when he just a baby."

"When he was an embryo, actually, but yeah, that's the guy." Zack shifted his weight, running an anxious hand through his hair. "What I didn't tell you is that he has this… effect on me."

"An effect?"

"Yeah, um, he… ah, well, maybe it's me. I get, y'know, aroused when I'm around him. I mean, not really, really hot or anything but kinda buzzed, I guess you could say." Aerith had a hand over her mouth, huge eyes looking at him with… was that amusement? "It's not funny."

She giggled, "He's very attractive – from what I've seen on TV anyway. Why are you so embarrassed?"

"'Cause I'm a guy and you're my girl. I'm not supposed to be looking at other girls like that let alone another guy. Guys actually – for some reason Cloud's having the same effect but not as strong. It's just since this mission too," he whined and started pacing. "Now, I don't even need to be standing close to Seph to get all, y'know, hard. I just have to smell him and 'poof' – hello Mr. Stiffy. It's fucking embarrassing. Sorry."

He stopped in front of her, looking anguished. "I love you, Aerith. I want to be with you, but now I'm all attracted to another guy and it just feels… wrong. Like I'm being unfaithful or something." He dropped to his knees and buried his head in her lap.

"Silly," she cooed. "You love them, don't you?" She ran soothing fingers through his jet-black hair, loving the texture of it.

"Yeah, they're my best buds."

"Well, there you go." She said as if that explained everything, but to Zack it explained nothing. He frowned at her, puzzled. She sighed, "Sex, the act of sex, isn't love in itself, but it can be a part of love. If you love them, even as 'just friends'" she used air-quotes, "then there will be times you'll look at them and wonder what it would be like to be with them."

He dropped his head back down onto her thighs, inhaling her warm, female smell. "I'm not gay."

She smacked his head, "It has nothing to do with that. It's just an extension of how much you care for them," she giggled lightly, "and with some of what your friend Cloud did, thrown in I'd be surprised if you didn't react."

That brought his head up, fast. "What Cloud did? How do you know what Cloud did?"

"The Lifestream told me. The planet was kind of worried when he started; it wondered if it was another threat like The Calamity."

"You know what Cloud did in Nibelheim, to protect us?" he asked.

"Uh-huh," she nodded.

"When he went into that trance thing," he clarified, wanting to be sure.

"Yup. Not specifics but I got a general impression. Hasn't he told you?" she asked him, her face set in concerned lines.

"No. He hasn't told us. All he does is blush and change the subject."

"Oh, well I can understand that." He could see her decide to change the subject; there was an almost audible 'click'. "The important thing is that I'm not going to get all outraged and hurt if you end up making love with either of them – and it would be 'making love' and not just 'having sex'. Your heart is big enough to hold all sorts of love for all sorts of people."

"So if I went out tonight and jumped Sephiroth, you're saying you'd be okay with that? Y'know, if I had sex with someone besides you."

"We-ell, Sephiroth and Cloud are okay, because you genuinely care for them, but no going to a bar and picking up some random chippy," she frowned at him to let him know she was serious.

"I wouldn't," he protested. Strangely enough, it was the absolute truth. When he'd been Cloud's age, going to the clubs and picking up SOLDIER Sluts had been fun, but he'd been exclusive to Aerith for nearly two years now and he was happy with that, or had been.

"This is so confusing…" he whined some more.

She just laughed at him, "Poor Zack. Still a small-town boy at heart." She gave him a long, deep kiss before standing up and holding out her hand. "Come on. Ice cream makes it all better."

He couldn't resist her. With a grumbling smile he took her hand and walked out of the park at her side. "Sooo, Aerith," he wheedled, "What exactly did Cloud do when he was in that trance?"

"Oh, no! You'll have to ask him."

"I've asked him. Now I'm asking you."

"You'll have more fun if you can get him to tell you."

'OOOOh, that's so mean!" he tugged at her ponytail, "you are such a tease."

She chuckled happily, "I have no idea where I get that from, I swear."

Zack sobered, "You really are an amazing person, Aerith, and I'm so lucky you chose me."

"I guess I felt you deserved the best," she smiled up at him sideways. They walked beside each other in quiet contentment for a while until Zack broke the silence.

"Say, Aerith, how do you feel about whips?"

* * *

**_Breaking News: Big Changes at ShinRa_ **

The latest casualty of the Hojo Scandal appears to be President Shinra himself. Insiders say that this was the second time Rufus Shinra Sr. had missed signs of major wrongdoing in his senior staff. The previous time being over two years ago when Lazard Deusericus, Director of SOLDIER and Doctor Cronin Hollander disappeared and it was revealed that they had redirected millions of gils.

These two events, plus the growing evidence that the President had looked the other way at the illegal human experiments carried out by Professor Hojo, have forced the Board of Directors to ask Rufus Shinra Sr. for his resignation. Effective tomorrow, Rufus Shinra Jr. will be taking over as President and Chief Executive Officer of the ShinRa Electric Power Company.

What that means for the future of the company, and for Gaia itself, only time will tell.

In other news, environmental protestors lined the streets of Midgar today blocking traffic...


End file.
